WHAT IS BEING PROPOSED?

McCallum Bros Ltd (MBL) will dredge a 17 km2 area of seabed as close as 4.2 km from the shore.

MBL will use a trailing suction dredge from the William Fraser, a state of the art 68m purpose built vessel which can carry 900 m3 of sand per load.

It will take 150,000cmb of sand for the first 3 years, rising to 250,000 cmb for the remaining 32 years of its consent. The sand is up to 10,000 years old and is high grade marine sand due to its quartz and feldspar composition. It will be sold into the Auckland construction industry for making concrete.

McCallum have likened its dredging operations to “a vacuum cleaner operating on the seafloor”.

HOW CAN MBL DO THIS?

MBL needs a resource consent (coastal permit) under the Resource Management Act. The Fast Track legislation will make this faster, easier and cheaper to obtain, with no public consultation, and very difficult to appeal. Instead the application will be heard by a three person panel and decided in weeks.

WHAT WILL THE IMPACT BE?

MBL have said it’s 35 year extraction project will have no impact on any part of the coastline, marine life, the sea floor, local businesses or endangered species.

“The proposal will not adversely impact the indigenous biological diversity of Bream Bay.”

MBL has dredged neighboring Pakiri Beach which local Iwi and the community have fought for decades. Expert marine divers said the seafloor at Pakiri resembled a ‘bombsite’ after McCallum’s dredging. Commercial fishermen say scallops and other species have not returned.

The Department of Conservation’s response to the proposal states “Dredging does not come without a cost for marine species and any incident could have huge impact on Bream Head, Bream Bay and the islands as well as Whangārei Harbour Marine Reserve. It impacts marine mammals (noise, collision, degraded ecosystems), degrades habitats, threatens organisms associated with the seabed; disturbs sediments (which accumulate toxins and pollutants such as hydrocarbons and heavy metals) which release contaminants into the water columns and other changes in sediment structures”.

MBL is currently appealing an Environment Court decision that saw record legal costs of $500,000 awarded against it with regard to its Pakiri Beach mining consent.