EPA seabed mining decision: 10 points

The plume is the spread of fine sediment that muddies the water and blooms out from the mining operation. The report found there would be a plume but said with the extraction conditions it had put in place around the size of the sand grains that are likely to plume, it felt the risks from it could be managed although the effects from it will be felt across a wide area. The two committee members who were against the application said there hadn’t been enough importance given to the underwater areas such as the Patea Shoals.

Some diving spots in the South Taranaki Bight could be affected by the

Ngati Ruanui opposed the application and this was acknowledged that in the report. It set a number of conditions on TTR, including that it offer to set up a Kaitiakitanga Reference Group to liaise with iwi. The two dissenting members said there hadn’t been enough effort from TTR to engage with iwi through the application process.

The decision included a number of conditions that TTR will have to follow. They include studying the marine area for two years before starting mining, mining noise and plume levels will need to be monitored, and it will also have to take out $500m in insurance to clean up the seabed after it has finished operations.

One of the concerns raised by those opposing the application was that it could have an effect on some of Taranaki’s top surfing beaches. But Dr Terry Hume, a marine geologist, coastal geomorphologist and coastal oceanographer who prepared a report for TTR, said there would only be small changes in wave conditions close to shore. "He qualified the maximum change as 10cm in wave height and mostly less an 5cm,’’ the report said.

Taking a whole bunch of sand off the seafloor means the sand from South Taranaki beaches will disappear to fill the hole, right? Not according to the report. Hume said the sand on the beaches comes from the rivers and cliffs in the area, at a rate of 6 million tonnes a year from the rivers and 1.3 million tonnes a year from the cliffs.

The South Taranaki Bight, has a large variety of whales; 33 species have been found it its waters. The biggest threat to the whales from the mining will be noise and the effects on their food sources. Southern right whales and Hectors dolphins are the most likely to be affected by the noise from the operation, with up to 43 per cent of the Southern right whale habitat in the Patea Shoals affected. Orca could also be affected through the disruption or destruction of habitat preferred by one of their favourite meals – the eagle ray.

As part of the application TTR has offered to build a training facility and heliport in Hawera, and a geotechnical and monitoring facility in Whanganui, which the report said could have a positive economic impact on South Taranaki.