The Raglan Picnic Oil Protest held at Manu Bay Reserve on Saturday was a winner with 300 people turning up to protect the ocean. The protest was aimed at Texan Oil Giant Anadarko which is about to start drilling an ultra deep-sea well off the Raglan Coast. The drilling will be done by an untested drillship registered in Liberia contracted by a Cayman Islands company. The New Zealand Government has required Anadarko to take out an insurance policy that would cover 0.06% of the cost of cleaning up a major spill.
The Oil Free Seas Flotilla arrived at the drilling site on the afternoon of Saturday 16th and say they are feeling the support from the shore. The site is currently occupied by a pod of whales. The Anadarko supply ship Hart Tide arrived at 6.00am on Sunday morning (17th), but left again soon after. The website Rigzone reports that the drillship Noble Bob Douglas is now in New Zealand waters and is ‘drilling’. This is incorrect.
The rally also covered the seabed mining proposed by Tasman Resources.
The Rally For Our Ocean was opened at 11am by Kaumatua for Tangata Whenua – Russell Riki. A series of people the covered the issues as they saw them:
- KASM spokesperson – Phil McCabe
- Tainui Awhiro Hapu Environmental spokesperson – Angeline Greensill
- Mana Party Leader – Hone Harawira
- Green Party Mining spokesperson – Catherine Delahunty
- Greenpeace spokesperson – Steve Abel
- Raglan Councillor – Clint Baddeley
- Te Whanau a Apanui – Dayle Takitimu
- Raglan Community – Chris
The rally ended with a spoken word performance by actor Anatonio Te Maioha.
Raglan MP, Shane Arden did not attend the rally saying once again that he was unavailable.
Raglan 23 sent the following request for information to Mr Arden on Friday 15th Dec. (No response has been received yet.) :