Snail protest targets Hokitika DoC office

A protester dressed as a giant snail chained himself to the Department of Conservation West Coast conservancy office in Hokitika this morning, blocking the entrance.

The Save Happy Valley Coalition is angry that state-owned Solid Energy has been moving rare Powelliphanta Augustus snails from their home above a valuable coal seam in the Mount Augustus section of the Stockton open-cast coal mine.

The snails have been temporarily relocated to a fridge at the DoC conservancy office, in Hokitika.

Protester Graham Jury, 22, an ecology student from Christchurch, chained himself to the door mid-morning.

"I've chained myself to this door in solidarity with more than 400 other Augustus snails here that are locked inside ice cream containers in the fridge."

Mr Jury said scientific advice from DoC, the Royal Society of New Zealand and an independent overseas expert all indicated that the outlook for the snails in captivity was "rather grim".

All up, nine coalition members gathered in Hokitika to deliver their demands to West Coast conservator Mike Slater. Hokitika police sent one officer to the scene and used bolt cutters to free the door.

However, they said the protest was peaceful and no back-up was required.

The coalition wants all of the Augustus snails returned to their habitat in Buller, and an end to what it describes as "state-sanctioned species extinction". It is also concerned the snails are being kept in "substandard conditions", before a captivity protocol has been developed.

The coalition today called for Solid Energy's security firm to be prosecuted for "illegal filming and security activity" on DoC land in December 2005 and "repeatedly refusing to release basic information about the snails to conservationists".

Previously protesters have tied themselves to the railway lines in Canterbury, and abseiled down Solid Energy's head office in Christchurch. An ongoing occupation of the Cypress Mine site north of Westport has passed the six-month mark.

The department said in a statement today that the police had been called, but just as a matter standard security procedures.

The protest was peaceful and a chain initially placed across the front doors had been removed as it was a fire hazard.

- NZPA