BREAKING! Fast Track panel rejects seabed mining

PRESS RELEASE Kiwis Against Seabed Mining are celebrating the Fast Track Panel's draft decision to decline Trans Tasman Resources' bid to mine the SouthTaranaki seabed. 

The draft decision was published at 6pm this evening. 

"This is a victory for the moana, for all the people across Taranaki and Aotearoa, from Iwi and hapu and councils and everyone who loves our ocean," said KASM chairperson Cindy Baxter.

"We've been fighting this ridiculous proposal since 2013, all the way to the Supreme Court, and back to the Fast Track, and it doesn't matter how many times the government tries to help this company with ever more lenient legislation, it simply doesn't pass muster."

"This activity has been shown time and time again to be utterly inappropriate in the 21st century and it's time for Aotearoa to move to a full ban on seabed mining." 

Excerpts from decision

Sections 23 and 24: 

"The South Taranaki Bight is an ecologically important area for marine mammals, including twelve threatened taonga species. The Panel has identified underwater noise, sediment plume effects, and cumulative impacts as credible risks and has found that for highly vulnerable species any additional impact would be unsustainable and cannot be reliably avoided or remedied through conditions."

"The Panel has reached the view that the adverse impacts ...are sufficiently significant to be out of proportion to the project’s regional or national benefits."

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