Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM) and Greenpeace will be in the Supreme Court tomorrow for the last battle in a long fight to oppose a seabed mine in the South Taranaki Bight. <\/p>\n\n
The groups are appearing, alongside iwi, other environmental groups and fishing interests, to defend their resounding judgement from the Court of Appeal last year which upheld the High Court\u2019s earlier decision to quash the EPA\u2019s decision to grant Trans Tasman Resources\u2019 (TTR) consent for seabed mining<\/p>\n\n
TTR is seeking to dig up 50 million tonnes of the South Taranaki Bight every year for 35 years in a 66 square kilometre area, to access five million tonnes of iron ore, and dump the rest back into the ocean.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt has been a long fight to oppose this mine since the EPA gave it the green light in 2017\u201d, says Cindy Baxter of KASM \u201cThis is a precedent-setting case, and it\u2019s important the law is as clear and strong as possible, in order to protect our oceans from damage by future seabed miners. Last year the Court of Appeal found that the environment was the bottom line, sending a powerful message that New Zealand waters are not open for pillage by seabed miners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Baxter says KASM is opposing TTR\u2019s application, on behalf of the many thousands of people they represent, as well as on behalf of the marine environment. \u201cThis destructive practice has no place in our waters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Greenpeace campaigner Jessica Desmond says: \u201cThe South Taranaki Bight is home to New Zealand\u2019s own population of blue whales, the critically endangered M\u0101ui dolphin, blue penguins and other ocean taonga. There is no way we should be opening this area to experimental extractive industries – the risk is just too great.\u201d
Desmond also highlighted the enormous effort and cost incurred to communities around the country, who have opposed this mine for years (this is TTR\u2019s second application, with the first being refused by the EPA in 2014).
\u201cIt\u2019s not good enough to rely on the energy and resources of community activists, local iwi and environmental groups to protect our marine environment from international mining companies – we hope the new government will ban seabed mining in New Zealand waters.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
The case will be heard over three days between 17-19 November, and the two environmental organisations will be working alongside a range of other groups, including local iwi Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101ti Ruanui, the trustees of Te Kaahui Rauru, Forest & Bird, the Taranaki-Whanganui Conservation Board, Te Ohu Kai Moana and a number of other fisheries interests. Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM) and Greenpeace will be in the Supreme Court tomorrow for the last battle in a long fight to oppose a seabed mine in the South Taranaki Bight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":14193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"Final battle to prevent South Taranaki Bight seabed mine hits Supreme Court,","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-15011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-oceans","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n
The case begins in the Supreme Court at 1000 hrs Tuesday 17 November and is expected to finish on Thursday 19 November. <\/strong><\/p>\n