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Opponents of sand mining off Pakiri and Mangawhai presented a petition to Auckland Council’s Governing Body on March 24.
There are currently three consent applications from McCallum Brothers before Council. Save Our Sands is calling on the government and Council to stop granting new sand mining consents in the northern embayments.
The petition received more than 8000 signatures online and was supported by Greenpeace and the Endangered Species Foundation.
Save Our Sands spokesperson Jessie Stanley presented the petition and said the embayments had reached a tipping point after being mined for more than 100 years.
“Shellfish beds are being destroyed, safe nesting spots for birds are being stolen and now we see the beach being sucked away,” Stanley said.
She said a recent Resource Management Act hearing compared the seafloor to “a ploughed field”.
The consent applications are for nine million cubic metres to be mined over 35 years.
“If you take a one metre cubed box of sand, line up nine million of them, it would be the length of New Zealand six times over,” Stanley said.
Japan stopped seafloor mining 20 years ago and chose to switch to artificial sand. Stanley hoped to see New Zealand follow in their footsteps.
Mayor Phil Goff said Council was unable to question the petitioners or accept the petition because of the three consent applications from McCallum Brothers.
On the advice of Council’s legal team, councillors instead thanked Stanley and forwarded the petition to the sand mining consents planner.
