The community group Climate Justice Taranaki is joining hapū and iwi from across the motu as an interested party to Waitangi Tribunal urgent hearing regarding the proposed seabed mining of the Taranaki coast by Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) under the Fast-Track legislation.

“TTR does not have a social licence to operate in Taranaki. All of Taranaki is opposed to seabed mining. Every iwi and hapū have resisted it, community groups have taken a stand against this project for years, the South Taranaki District Council and Whanganui District Council have come out against it, and this week, the New Plymouth District Council has confirmed its opposition to seabed mining.”

“While the Fast-Track application is in motion, we are more determined than ever to stop this project from ever going ahead and are calling for large-scale civil action against seabed mining if this ever gets approved.”

“In our letter to the Waitangi Tribunal, we noted that Taranaki is home to important taonga species. The South Taranaki Bight is an important hotspot for marine mammal diversity within Aotearoa, including as a feeding and breeding location. There are a number of nationally vulnerable and nationally threatened and endangered species that reside within the moana, including a local population of Pygmy Blue Whales which are located within the South Taranaki Bight year-round.”

“Surveys by NIWA in South Taranaki Bight also reported new species of bryozoans, sponges, annelids, and algae, as well as new records for many groups for the region. A subsequent 2021 NIWA survey of Pātea Bank reefs, found that a deeper reef held high densities of juvenile blue cod, consistent with it providing important nursery habitat. Several other smaller nursery habitat areas were discovered on the edges of some reefs.”

“Considering the fast-changing ocean conditions, notably extended marine heatwaves and changing ocean chemistry undermining ocean food webs, the plight of Aotearoa’s threatened and endangered marine species is dire, even without additional manmade impacts from seabed mining.”

© Scoop Media