Press release
16 December 2013

Opposition against seabed mining evident in submission numbers

Thousands of New Zealanders are telling the EPA to say no to the first ever application to mine ironsands off the seabed, including former All Black Josh Kronfeld, prominent artist Nigel Brown and Australia’s famous activist surfer, Dave Rastovich.

Kiwis Against Seabed Mining chair, Phil McCabe, said today that submissions have been pouring into the EPA through the KASM website, and continue to do so this week. More than 3000 have been sent with ahead of the Thursday 5pm deadline.

Former All Black and KASM Ambassador, Josh Kronfeld has made a submission, saying “Kiwis love our black sand and to sell them off to an international company that will ship it off to Asia, leaving us to deal with the major threats to the environment is simply irresponsible.”

Artist Nigel Brown has made a poster especially for the issue, and painted his own words to encourage others to make submissions.

Surfer and coastline activist Dave Rastovich, who paddled from Taranaki to Piha last year to raise awareness around the issue, said:

“The beaches, fishing, sailing, surfing and diving in New Zealand are renowned and revered throughout the world for their pristine and spacious beauty. To risk all that for a few fat cats to fill their pockets with cash shows that those members of the sea bed mining group have no affinity and love for New Zealand, her people, other animals, history or future. Only those who have no care for Aotearoa's health would be crazy enough to support the stupidity of seabed mining in this beautiful country.''

Phil McCabe noted the difficulty of small groups and members of the public who have to struggle with an overwhelming number of documents dumped onto the EPA’s website as submissions opened.

“Despite the complicated nature of the application, the short period for public comment, timed right in the busy countdown to Christmas, thousands of kiwis are still taking time out to say no to seabed mining, echoing the sentiment of opposition that we’ve been hearing,” he said.

ends

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