Press release - April 4, 2011
Ōpōtiki, Monday 4 April, 2011: The flotilla opposed to deep sea oil drilling entered the zone in the Raukumara Basin where seismic testing is scheduled to begin today.
Seismic testing ship, Orient Explorer departed Tauranga Harbour last night.
After a powerful welcome and meeting with local iwi te Whanau a Apanui on the weekend, skippers of the Stop Deep Sea Oil flotilla resolved to sail out and meet the seismic testing vessel in the protest tradition of “bearing witness” used during the decades of the Nuclear Free Pacific campaign. A boat from te Whanau a Apanui has joined the flotilla.
The flotilla’s largest sailing vessel Infinity departed Whangaparaoa, East Cape North Island yesterday and sailed through the night to enter the testing zone early this morning. It is expected to encounter the Orient Explorer in the next 24 hours.
Greenpeace New Zealand spokesperson Steve Abel said, “As New Zealanders we regard our coastlines and oceans as national treasures that are much too valuable to risk with oil spills”.
The flotilla’s departure coincides with the leaking of the Government’s Energy Strategy.
“Right as the Deep Sea Oil protest flotilla is fighting for a clean energy future and is determined that deep sea oil drilling does not happen in New Zealand waters, this current Energy Strategy will mire New Zealand into an even deeper dependency on polluting fossil fuels. The Government couldn’t have got it more wrong”, said Steve Abel.
“No one is saying petrol pumps will be turned off tomorrow. Our dependence on fossil fuels won’t end overnight but our investment from now on needs to be in clean energy - not looking for the last drops of oil in the most risky places”.
The Orient Explorer is under contract to Brazilian petrol giant Petrobras to do seismic surveying. The permit was granted by Gerry Brownlee to Petrobras in 2010, at the same time as oil was pouring into the US Gulf of Mexico in the infamous BP deep sea oil disaster.
To estimate the size of an oil reserve beneath the deep sea floor, survey ships tow up to ten kilometres of multiple airgun floats that emit thousands of high-decibel explosive impulses to map the geology beneath the seafloor. Seismic surveys have been implicated in harming marine life and migrations, including whale beaching and stranding incidents.
The Department of Conservation states that beaked whales live in the Raukumara Basin.
The flotilla is opposing all aspects of the deep sea exploration and drilling programme.
“Just as Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee misled the mining industry last year by attempting to open up high value conservation land to mining, our government has misled the deep sea oil industry by saying our oceans are open to them. Last year New Zealanders opposed mining on our conservation land and the Government listened. The Government now needs to respond to the growing opposition against deep sea oil drilling by stating that deep sea oil companies are not welcome here”, concluded Abel.
ENDS
For more information contact:
Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Steve Abel on 021927 301
Greenpeace Communications Officer Dean Baigent-Mercer on 021 302 251
For more information on the Flotilla www.stopdeepseaoil.org.nz