The latest news on black sand mining from KASM

The latest news on black sand mining from Phil McCabe of KASM

Tena Koutou,

I write this sitting at an ocean lookout. The rising sun hits my back and a light southeasterly rustles the flax beside me while the clean lines of a building swell march from the horizon and peel along the boulder headland.

Surfers pull up to the lookout, some local, some from surrounding towns and cities and some from overseas. A small boat motors around the headland, most likely checking cray pots before the swell really kicks in.

It’s mornings like this that remind us as coastal people why we live where we do. The ocean consistently delivers us goodness in so many forms and this is what inspires us at KASM (Kiwis Against Sand Mining) to stand up and protect all that lies therein from the destructive seabed mining proposals that just keep coming. To commit ourselves, and work to reach that balance of giving.

We are an island nation full of coastal people with an unbreakable, ingrained connection to the marine environment and we will do everything in our power to maintain its wellbeing.

Why am I not in the water? Because I need to let you know that another application to mine our seabed is about to be lodged and it’s time to step up and fight for what we love once again.

Two years ago, a largely foreign-owned company applied to mine the seabed for our precious black sand. Thousands of you joined us in the fight against it – and we won.

But now they’re back.

They want to do pretty much what they wanted to do last time. They’ve seen and heard from us that we, as a nation, do not want their machinery messing up our ocean, sucking up 50 million tonnes of seabed and spitting back the 45 million tonnes of ‘waste’ every year for 20 years. Killing every living thing in their path and smothering life in a much bigger area.

We’ve already told this company that it’s unacceptable for them to come in and grab our resources, to pay us a pittance and wreck our beautiful ocean environment on the way through. We, the people, told them, and the authorities echoed our message by refusing their application.

It’s more important than ever to put up a strong fight for our oceans. The company will come back stronger, but we know that, together, we can win.

The KASM crew have been busy preparing for the battle ahead. We have lined up a cracking legal team and we’re now securing scientific and economic experts to argue our case in the upcoming hearing process. It’s a lot of work: they’re all experts in their fields and we need to pay them for their efforts.

There are three important ways that you can contribute in this battle for our oceans.

• First, donate to help our fantastic team win again.Click here to make a donation to KASM now.   
• Know someone who could support our cause in high profile way?  Ask them to get in touch by emailing info@kasm.org.nz – or send them this newsletter
• Finally, watch out for info to share on our facebook page, and our newsletters, and get ready to make a submission when the time comes – we’ll let you know when.

This is going to be a bigger fight than ever before. It’s going to take all of us ocean lovers to ward off disaster in our waters.

If we come together and win again, we will be sending another very strong message that the idea of mining the worlds oceans is unacceptable.

E tu nga tangata o te Moana!
(Stand up all people of the ocean!)

Phil McCabe
Chairperson