Greens join Pacific leaders to call for an end to deep sea mining

Greens Oceans & Fisheries (Pacific) spokesperson Teanau Tuiono has joined together with other Pacific Parliamentarians to launch The Pacific Parliamentarians’ Alliance on Deep Sea Mining.

The Alliance is a collective of Pacific leaders and advocates who are committed to protect the ocean from mining by large corporations backed by powerful governments.

“The ocean is the foundation of shared Pasifika cultural and historical identities - it links communities here to our island homelands,” says Teanau Tuiono, Green Party spokesperson for Oceans & Fisheries (Pacific).

“Today, I joined with my fellow Parliamentarians from across Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa, as Indigenous custodians of the vast ocean, to call for a moratorium on deep sea mining in line with the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

“The life of our ocean is essential for life on earth for all living things and beings. But we face yet another human endeavour, threatening that health - the reckless pursuit of deep sea mining in our Pacific Ocean.

“We must acknowledge the unprecedented threats and damage from people - overfishing, pollution, plastics, nuclear waste, biodiversity loss, ocean warming and acidification from climate impacts, and rising sea levels.

“This exploitation holds much responsibility for the realities of many Pacific Islands societies today; realities that serve to shrink our options and entice our countries to repeat unsustainable patterns of economic development,” he said.

Teanau was supported by the Green Party’s Oceans and Fisheries spokesperson Eugenie Sage who said:

“The New Zealand Government is negotiating in the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for a regulatory regime which would allow deepsea mining to start from next July, after Nauru triggered a fast-track process to develop the regulations.

“The Minister’s responses to questions in Parliament yesterday were a welcome signal that the Government may not support mining applications without a robust regulatory regime.

“The importance of protecting the oceans from harm means a moratorium on mining applications would be a more precautionary approach. We need a major overhaul of the way the ISA operates for any regulatory regime to be effective,” she said.

“The oceans cannot wait any longer, and we cannot ignore this crisis any longer. We are obliged to preserve the ocean for the sake of future generations and for all living and non-living things.

“The protection of the ocean is our moral responsibility.”

ENDS

Action

Protect Nature

Volunteer

The Greens are proud to be driven by passionate people like you. Today we need your help to take action on the biggest issues facing Aotearoa. Volu...

Action

Save Auckland's Climate Budget

Sign the petition to stop Mayor Wayne Brown's proposal for dangerous cuts to climate and environmental programmes that protect us from extreme weat...

Action

No New Mines 2023

Action

Expand Voting

Now more than ever, young people in Aotearoa are impacted by Government decisions, and they deserve to have a say. We are calling on all Members of...

Action

End Intensive Winter Grazing

Sign the petition to Labour Ministers, to move faster in bringing regulations into force and end intensive winter grazing.

Action

Trains for Climate

Add your name to our open letter urging the Minister for Finance Grant Robertson to save our passenger trains between Wellington, the Wairarapa and...

Action

Healthy Oceans 2022

Join our Healthy Oceans Crew to help us keep the health and protection of our oceans high on the Labour Government’s political agenda.

Action

It's time: A Ministry for Rainbow Communities

Join our call asking the Prime Minister to establish a Ministry for Rainbow Communities that can champion Rainbow issues.

Action

No new mines on conservation land

Sign the open letter asking Labour Ministers to stick to their promise of banning new mining projects on conservation land.

Action

Allow community ownership of our buses

Public transport is an essential service and helps to tackle the climate crisis by reducing our carbon emissions. But there are barriers to communi...

Action

Local Events

We have activists across Aotearoa / New Zealand who are working hard to build a brighter future for our kids and grandkids. This page lists upcomin...

Latest Fisheries Announcements

Story

Seaweek 2021: Green Party call on Fisheries NZ and DOC to do better to stop by-kill of our precious NZ seabirds

The Green Party can reveal that in 2019/2020, more seabirds were reported as killed by fishing than the previous four years.

Greens commit to ensuring strong oceans protection this term

The Green Party will work with Labour this term to ensure better protections for our oceans, Green MP Eugenie Sage said today.

Successful prosecution of Talley’s deep-water fishing division shows need for more marine protected areas and better enforcement

Today’s ruling that Talley’s deep-water fishing division, Amaltal, is guilty of bottom trawling in the Hikurangi Marine Reserve demonstrates the ne...

Reports of great whites finned alive cement case for cameras on boats

Claims of illegal fishing and live finning of great whites in New Zealand waters show once again that cameras on fishing boats are long overdue, an...

Marine Policy

Making use of our greatest ally, Te Ao Tūroa, the long-standing natural world, through active kaitiakitanga practice and precautionary, adaptive, i...

Latest Fisheries (pacific Peoples) Announcements

Story

Moratorium on deep sea mining needed right now

The Green Party is calling on the Government to announce its support urgently for a moratorium on deep sea mining under the high seas, after Pacifi...

Pasifika calls for the protection of our seas

The Green Party supports calls from around the Pacific to stop harmful fishing practices such as bottom trawling, stop using our seas to dispose o...

Story

The Time is Now for Oceans Protection

Community organisations, mana whenua and the Greens have written to the incoming Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to call for the progression witho...

Greens launch petition to save oil and gas ban

The Green Party has launched a petition to save the ban on oil and gas exploration.

Go and vote for our future

Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw are today wrapping up a campaign that has sought to inspire hope, rather than fear, and that ...

Greens welcome new marine reserves for South East Otago

The Green Party is today welcoming the Government’s announcement that there will be six new marine reserves on the South East Otago coast.

Healthy Ocean Act - Marama Davidson Speech

He mōhio ō tātou tīpuna ki te tirotiro taiao.

Greens will demand Minister for Oceans and Fisheries to lead ocean rescue plan

The Green Party will protect 30% of the ocean by 2030, create an independent Ocean Commission to advise the government, and put a Green Minister fo...