Conservation Comment: Defenders of the Moana

The sea off the coast of South Taranaki is safe from ironsand extractors, thanks to iwi and environmental groups. This little blue penguin need not look so grumpy. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion:

Last Thursday was a red-letter day for environmental protection of the Inland Sea. What a heroic battle was waged to prevent another industrial assault on a precious part of our planet.

You may wonder where the Inland Sea is? I have heard Japanese appreciatively use the term for waters nestled between their home islands and I think it is apt for the shallow, nutrient and sealife rich, temperate waters that circulate between our home islands.
You can see from the shape of Farewell Spit that sediment rich waters from Westland curl into this sea. They then mix with sediment from the North Island as the current sweeps down from Taranaki along the big bay with no name that we live on. These oceanic streams create a gyre — which is naturally rich enough to attract everything from gigantic blue whales to little blue penguins.

Much of the floor of our inland sea is sandy but there are rocky areas which are biodiversity hotspots with colourful residents we rarely see. Into this realm strode a multi-national; Trans Tasman Resources.

TTR's first big mistake was to include the area near Auckland's West Coast in their mining plans. They soon learnt that was not a smart move and settled on an offshore area just up the coast and current from us to deeply scour and release a plume of tailings.

They poured in their millions on surveying and producing glowing reports. Would you believe jobs in Whanganui? Probably not. Would you believe it is a marine desert out there with little wildlife? Definitely not. The usual environmental groups took up the case for nature — Forest and Bird, Greenpeace and a newbie, Kiwis against Seabed Mining (KASM). It's hard work when you are taking on rich investors with deep pockets.

Taking over the lead came the descendants of the discoverers who sailed the mighty Aotea waka over these waters. Hats off to a new generation of defenders of Te Taiao — the environment that nurtures us and awaits some return of the favour. Great to see them surveying the reefs and fighting doggedly in the court battles. Mana revival big time. Congratulations Ngati Ruanui and all the iwi involved.

So the last day of September delivered the Supreme Court's last word to the would-be seabed mining pioneers. This was not the first place on the planet to be mined like this — more like it should have been the last place to risk wrecking. So a big win for the people and the environment because even if TTR keep coming back with some new angle the people have awoken. Filled with the wairua of the moana they will not accept further despoilation of nature.