Protest against sand mining in Northland/Auckland waters planned

Pakiri seabed sand mining protesters voice their opposition as McCallums sand mining ship moves by. Pakiri and Mangawhai Sandspit are among the final stronghold of the endangered fairy tern

More than 1000 people opposed to seabed sandmining at Pakiri are expected at a protest in Mangawhai Heads ahead of resource consent application hearings for McCallum Bros to harvest the resource from nearby waters.

The July 10 event on Mangawhai Heads beach is expected to be one of Northland's biggest protests, drawing Northlanders and Aucklanders living along the 20-kilometre-long Pakiri-Mangawhai coastline and beyond.

Auckland-based McCallum Bros wants to harvest more than eight million tonnes of sand over 35 years from 8.2 square kilometres off the sea floor off Pakiri and Te Arai.

McCallum Bros started in 1904 and its past sand mining has also been at Waipū and Mangawhai.

Save Our Sands spokesperson Ken Rayward said opposition to the mining was growing and the protest event would provide an opportunity for the community to publicly express its views.

Greenpeace campaigner James Hita, who headed the years-long campaign to stop Taranaki seabed mining for iron and titanium magnate, will address those present. The Court of Appeal in 2020 refused Trans-Tasman Resources permission to carry nine millions of tonnes of ironsands there.

Kaipara Mayor Dr Jason Smith will also be speaking.

"I am looking forward to hearing from the community and working on the next steps in fighting the sand mining," Smith said.

Rayward said 400 people had turned out to a similar event last year. More than three times that number were expected at the July event. Community opposition would be expressed in a giant 60-metre high wording SOS on the sand.

SOS has about 30,000 members across a coalition of groups including Greenpeace, Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society and Friends of Pakiri. It delivered a 15,000-signature petition in opposition to the offshore sand mining to Auckland Council in April.

Eleven days of resource consent renewal application hearings for McCallum Bros to continue harvesting seabed sand in near-shore and newly in the mid-shore zones near the beach start on July 27.

These are happening as the company also heads to the Environment Court to challenge Auckland Council hearing commissioners' May decision not to allow mining in the off-shore zone.

Stop Sand Mining signage at Mangawhai.

Rayward said opposition to the seabed sand mining had for the first time now reached the point where the three councils connected with its operation and potential impacts – Auckland Council (AC), Kaipara District Council (KDC) and Northland Regional Council (NRC) - had all expressed their concerns over the activity.

Pakiri sea floor sand has played a major role in Auckland's building scene. It is the concrete industry's sand source preference for major infrastructure projects, high-rise construction and marine structures.

The Pakiri-Mangawhai coastline is a 20-kilometre sweep of East Coast surf beach ending at Mangawhai Sandspit in the north. The Sandspit provides a critical barrier for Mangawhai township, New Zealand's fastest-growing coastal settlement, and the Pacific Ocean.

Eighty per cent of this coastline is in Auckland Council, 20 per cent in Northland. Mining takes place in the sea off the middle section of the coastline.

The Northland-Auckland land border runs out into the sea in a north-easterly direction from roughly the base of Mangawhai spit. This means the spit, a critical barrier between Northland's Mangawhai and the ocean, is in the spotlight when it comes to the mining's potential impacts.

Seabed sand mining is allowed only off the Auckland end of the beach. This area is under the jurisdiction of Auckland Council.

The beach's northern end is under the council jurisdiction of NRC and KDC.

The NRC submission on the near-shore and mid-shore resource consent applications raised concern regarding the lack of research that had been done about Pakiri sand mining's potential impacts north of the Auckland/Northland border. It was important that any potential cross-boundary effects were addressed. NRC said it was important that Mangawhai Spit was protected from adverse effects.

The barrier spit was classed as outstanding in terms of landscape, natural character and natural features. These high-ranking values were a matter of national importance under the Resource Management Act.

Save our Sands (SOS) protesters deliver their 15,000 signature petition against Pakiri sand mining to Auckland Council in April

KDC has also submitted against the company's near-shore and mid-shore resource consent application. It said Mangawhai Harbour, Mangawhai estuary and Mangawhai Heads were at risk of exposure to the coastal elements should the spit's protection disappear or decrease.

"KDC opposes the two applications for sand extraction within the Mangawhai-Pakiri embayment ... Opposition is in full and pertains to actual or perceived adverse effects on the Mangawhai Sandspit morphology, wildlife habitat of nationally critical or vulnerable bird species, as well as on the local Mangawhai community," the submission said.

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