Shallow motives, deep pockets, and the fight to protect our seabed
Crushing pressure, frigid cold and perpetual darkness blanket the deep seabed, yet in spite of this, life there thrives. Millions of organisms have carved out a home in this harsh landscape, forming an essential part of the ocean system that people rely on across the Pacific, including Aotearoa. International corporations could soon annihilate this environment for the sake of profit.
An Australian mining company Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) has been fighting local communities, businesses, iwi and councils through regulators, the courts, and now even parliament to mine our seabed. As Caritas continues our long-standing opposition to this destructive practice, we explain why we care and what we are doing.
Why should we care about seabed mining?
Science
The scientific perspective on seabed mining is deeply worrying. TTR’s own proposal says they will completely destroy all life on the seabed in the areas they mine. Seabed organisms help to decompose materials that fall to the ocean floor and are a vital link in the ocean’s cycles of energy and nutrients that keep the whole system thriving.
Many seabed mining companies argue their activities will actually be good for the planet by providing critical minerals needed for green technology. This claim is deeply flawed, and you can find strong rebuttal from many Pacific voices (including our own submissions). Before you even think about electric vehicles, remember that the seabed stores up to sixty times as much carbon as the atmosphere, sequestered over millions of years – there are absolutely no climate gains to be made by digging it up!
Catholic social teaching
Caritas is heavily guided by the words of Pope Francis. His works Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum directly discuss a Catholic response to the climate and biodiversity crises. Pope Francis decries “the ideology underlying an obsession: to increase human power beyond anything imaginable, before which nonhuman reality is a mere resource at its disposal.” We see seabed mining as exactly the kind of arrogant approach that seeks to subjugate God’s creation to human exploitation and assumes we can understand a system that is so vast we have barely scratched its surface.
This social teaching closely aligns with indigenous knowledge. As the saying in the Pacific goes, we do not inherit the world from our ancestors but borrow it from our children. The Māori concept of kaitiakitanga sees people as custodians of the land, rather than owning it as a resource. This is mirrored in the Catholic social teaching principle of stewardship.
What is being done about seabed mining in New Zealand?
Protests and court battles
Since 2016, TTR has been applying to mine iron-sand in the South Taranaki Bight. This is one of the most biodiverse marine areas in our waters, home to several endangered marine mammals, important fishing stocks, many species of seabirds, and an important fishing ground for little blue penguins. TTR applied for resource consent to dredge five million tonnes of iron-sand every year from the site, and release around 90% of it back into the ocean as sediment.
The Environmental Protection Authority originally accepted TTR’s proposal, but environmental groups including Caritas, alongside local iwi Ngāti Ruanui appealed the consent and had it revoked by the High Court. The Court of Appeals and Supreme Court both upheld this decision, finding the consent could not prevent severe harm to the environment and the EPA had failed to consult Māori.
The Fast-track Bill
In 2024, TTR suddenly pulled out of the renewed hearing process, saying they intend to use the Government’s new fast-track consenting regime to bypass the courts and regulators. We have another fight on our hands, with TTR already misleading people about their latest application, but will continue to stand in solidarity – kotahitanga with our allies against this dangerous practice.
Caritas made written and oral submissions against the Fast-track Approvals Bill, highlighting the danger that it could lead to seabed mining. The decision now lies with the government.
Taranaki images credit: Phillip Capper under Creative Commons Attribution license