Environmental Justice

Seabed Mining

We along with Caritas Oceania, call for seabed mining in national and international waters to be banned. 

We are signatories of the Pacific Blue Line statement and have been raising awareness and advocating on this issue since 2014.

Seabed mining will destroy marine life and ecosystems where mining takes place, and potentially harm a much wider area through sediment dispersal. We still have much to learn about deep ocean life and ecosystems and their role in carbon capture and storage. Our Moana, our Ocean, is under enough stress from overfishing, pollution, and the climate emergency. Rather than expand the mining frontier, we need to urgently protect and restore biodiversity and carbon sinks on land and sea, for a healthy planet and healthy people.

Indigenous and coastal communities’ wellbeing have already been disrupted by exploration practices, licensing procedures and near-shore seabed extraction. People of the Pacific have not given their informed consent to seabed mining. In addition, minerals from the seafloor are not needed. We can reduce consumer demand and do more to recycle minerals already extracted, while technologies for renewable energy are rapidly changing.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is charged with controlling activities affecting the international seabed and to protect the marine environment from harmful effects arising from these activities , including mining. However, there are concerns about the ISA’s transparency and potential for conflict of interest, as it derives income from mining licences. Negotiations around potential mining are ongoing at the ISA, and we have supported the New Zealand government’s stance calling for a moratorium.

View our oral submission

Within New Zealand, we have stood alongside tangata whenua and local communities opposing attempts to begin seabed mining, including in the South Taranaki Bight. We made written and oral submissions to the Environment Select Committee’s Inquiry into Seabed Mining in July 2023.