September 01, 2017
Seven groups appeal seabed destruction
Seven groups have appealed against the 35-year resource consent granted to Trans Tasman Resources to take millions of tonnes of iron sand from the South Taranaki Bight, including local iwi Ngati Ruanui and Nga Rauru.
Maori fisheries settlement body Te Ohu Kaimoana is also taking the Environmental Protection Authority to the High Court, alongside a coalition of commercial fishing interests, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining and Greenpeace, the Taranaki-Whanganui Conservation Board and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Forest and Bird chief executive Kevin Hague says his organisation is proud to be standing alongside iwi in a battle that will affect the whole country, if the consent is allowed to set a precedent for the new and untested mining method.
The company’s claims of minimal environmental damage aren’t credible.
"The issue is not just the footprint of where they mine because there will be a huge amount of sediment spread through a wide area making it much more difficult for small organisaitons and then the fish that feed on them and then the larger animals that feed on those," Mr Hague says.
He says the Environmental Protection Authority has ignored the effects of the noise from the mining on the area’s mammal population, including Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins and the only indigenous breeding population of blue whales.
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