Carving up the coast

Forest and Bird, Issue 293, 1 August 1999, Page 3

Carving up the coast

Marine farming is also a form of ‘Carving up the Coastline’ (Forest & Bird, May 1999). A place of unrivalled beauty, Golden Bay is cradled between the Kahurangi National Park, the Abel Tasman National Park and the Farewell Spit Nature Reserve. Given our surroundings, one would think our little patch of paradise was exempt from rampant industrialisation. Yet here, in the heart of the parks, we too suffer the same onslaught from coastal speculators wanting to amass thousands of hectares for commercial development. Unlike land-based development, the target in Golden Bay is the intertidal and near-shore coastal marine area. Mussel exports are the latest fisheries ‘gold rush. Nearly the whole of the bay is already dredged and

trawled regularly. Over 2000 hectares is already allocated to subsurface spat-catching and mussel farms. Yet currently, an additional 1000 hectares are being applied for by the marine farming industry for standard mussel farm structures. If approved, these farms will stretch many kilometres long, some within a mile of the coast. Thousands of black and orange buoys will litter the vast seascape, destroying the sense of remote wilderness. Industry will continue to cut into the very heart of Golden Bay’s natural character. The Tasman District Council recently made a sensible provision in our regional plan to keep all new marine farming three nautical miles from shore. Not surprisingly, this provision is being appealed by the marine farming industry. We are a small community, but we will continue to fight to preserve the natural character of our coastal marine environment. Michele Surcouf, Takaka.