A leader in the New Zealand fishing industry is praising a move by the New Zealand government to reject a mining proposal that he said would put key fishing grounds at risk.
George Clement, chief executive of the Deepwater Group and executive chair of Seafood New Zealand, a leading New Zealand fishing industry group, spoke out on Chatham Rock Phosphate’s application to mine the Chatham Rise area. New Zealand’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) turned down the application.
“The EPA’s decision recognizes that seabed mining is a relatively new industry which has many uncertainties, and that this was a risk not worth taking when it came to New Zealand’s marine environment,” Clement said. “Had this venture on the Chatham Rise gone ahead it would have resulted in widespread habitat destruction, affecting water quality, the marine food web, benthic fauna, fish spawning and our conservation estate.”
Clement said the Chatham Rise area has been fished for nearly half a century, and called it a “hotspot” for juvenile fish such as hoki, ling, silver warehou and white warehou.
