WWF calls for significant areas of ocean declared off-limits to offshore drilling

WWF-New Zealand today called for the government to set aside significant areas of New Zealand's oceans as off-limits for oil and gas exploration, following the release yesterday of a government review into the adequacy of current health, safety and environmental regulations for offshore petroleum operations.

The government commissioned the review in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, yet WWF says the review contains no recommendations to manage the conflict between oil development and other values of our oceans: "The report fails to recognise that New Zealand has no effective capacities to respond to anything other than a minor spill in coastal waters, yet our oceans are currently wide open to oil and gas exploration," said WWF-New Zealand Marine Advocate Bob Zuur.

"There are some areas of our oceans that are unsafe for oil and gas exploration, and areas which are so significant for wildlife they should never be open to commercial exploitation. The government should declare those areas off limits for oil and gas exploration," he said.

He said New Zealand's capacity to respond to oil spills is limited to a maximum of 3,500 tonnes of oil in coastal waters, and anything beyond this requires international help. Deepwater Horizon lost that quantity of oil every ten hours.

"The report identifies the very large offshore area open for petroleum activities, recognises that accidents are unpredictable, and suggests that precaution is needed. Yet it this report only goes as far as tweaking the existing system and provides no confidence that the recommendations will significantly reduce the risk of major accidents," said WWF's Bob Zuur.

WWF is calling for the government to take a strategic approach to the management of New Zealand's oceans, and follow President Obama's lead in creating a National Oceans Policy, requiring that the regulation of specific activities, such as oil and gas development, must take into account impacts on the broader ecosystems.

"New Zealand has one of the largest exclusive economic zones in the world, and we need a Minister of Oceans responsible for managing the 95% of New Zealand that is underwater" said WWF's Bob Zuur.

He said that while a New Zealand Ocean Strategy is needed, key areas should be protected now: "Earlier this year, Minister of Energy suggested mining in national parks and this raised concerns about the impacts on some of our most precious areas. We don't have any national parks in our exclusive economic zone. But the Minister has lots of plans for petroleum development in our oceans. As a minimum, we need to protect important areas - national parks of the sea - to ensure that our most precious areas of wildlife are protected."

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