The fight to stop seabed mining and deep sea mining is heating up here in Aotearoa and in the Pacific.
Greenpeace joined people from the local community, Ngāti Ruanui, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining and Climate Justice Taranaki to show a united opposition to mining off the South Taranaki coast at a hearing of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in Hāwera from March 13 to March 15.
It is the latest skirmish in a long battle to stop Australian-owned Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) from mining the seabed and threatening precious marine life, such as the pygmy blue whale and the critically endangered Māui dolphin.
Trans-Tasman Resources is proposing to mine 50 million tons of the seabed each year for 35 years and then dump the majority back into the ocean in a giant sediment plume.
Alongside Ngāti Ruanui, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and local communities in Taranaki, we have successfully fought them off for more than a decade.
In the hearing, the TTR lawyers failed abysmally in their efforts to satisfy concerns of adverse environmental impacts. Incredibly, the mining company wants the EPA to grant them consent now on the promise that they will do proper environmental surveying in the future. They’ve been at this for over ten years, and still, they haven’t even conducted adequate impact assessments. And they haven’t said what they would do if they did find significant marine mammal presence in the mining area after they started mining!
There are two more hearings to come in Hawera but there are also now fears that TTR and other companies bent on destroying the environment will use the National-led government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill to bulldoze through any opposition.
The global significance of Seabed Mining proposals in Taranaki
The result of the EPA hearing could set a globally significant precedent. It’s never been done before anywhere in the world but there are mining companies looking at starting. If it begins here in Aotearoa, it makes it harder to stop elsewhere.
As we speak, the International Seabed Authority is holding a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, to discuss the deep sea mining industry’s plans to mine the deep seabed in the Pacific.
It’s also attacking the right to protest.
In November and December 2023, a team of Greenpeace International activists held a 14-day peaceful protest at sea against deep sea mining in the North Pacific, and the TMC sought an injunction to stop them.
They were undeterred, and although a judge then upheld Greenpeace’s right to protest at sea, the ISA is now discussing ways to prevent peaceful protest at sea to protect the mining industry.
Greenpeace International is attending the ISA meeting to oppose mining interests, protect our oceans, and assert the right to protest on their behalf.
We have yet to see the outcome of that meeting, but one way or another, we will keep up the fight in the Pacific and here in Aotearoa.
On April 16 and 17, we will be back in Hāwera at the next EPA hearing into TTR’s application to plunder the seas off the coast of Taranaki. Join us there if you can, because together we are strong.
We’ve shown time and time again that when we stand together, we can win.
Seabed mining is a new threat to the oceans. Now is our chance to prevent the destruction before it’s too late.