The Our Moana, Our Future pre-election debate, hosted by WWF-New Zealand, and moderated by The Post national affairs editor Andrea Vance, will be livestreamed above from 5.15pm.
A ship foundering on rocks and spilling oil into waters close to a colony of endangered penguins. The failure of a plan to create one of the world’s largest ocean sanctuaries.
Marine heatwaves, an invasion of an exotic smothering seaweed and the imminent extinction of one of the world’s rarest dolphins.
New Zealand has a huge, watery territory – the world’s fourth-largest exclusive economic zone – but it is in a downward spiral, threatened by climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing and other human activities.
Peter Meecham/The Press
The fishing vessel Austro Carina founders on the rocks at Red Bay on the east side of Banks Peninsula after being grounded at around 11pm on September 24.
The ocean is also central to our economy. Most fossil fuel discoveries this century were made offshore, and we rely on shipping for trade. Commercial fishing is worth $5.17 billion to the New Zealand economy. And increasingly, companies are eyeing the vast mineral wealth of the deep seabed to power new technology.
Last week, most countries signed up to a landmark high seas treaty following nearly two decades of negotiations. In the heart of global diplomacy, the United Nations in New York, the agreement extends protection to over two-thirds of the world’s ocean.
Sebastian Pena Lambarri/Unsplash
The new Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) treaty will protect the ‘high seas’ that lie beyond countries’ boundaries.That’s two-thirds of the world’s oceans.
And yet, oceans policy rarely achieves political prominence – and has barely been campaigned on during this year’s election campaign. Only one party – the Greens – has released a marine manifesto.
On Thursday, a pre-election debate, Our Moana, Our Future, hosted by WWF-New Zealand will put candidates from five parties through their paces on ocean and fishing policies. The Post’s National Affairs Editor, Andrea Vance will moderate the event at Auckland’s Maritime Museum.
The panel includes Green Party environment spokesperson and former conservation minister Eugenie Sage, and current oceans and fisheries Minister Rachel Brooking, for Labour.
Former associate environment minister Scott Simpson will represent National, joined by David Wilson, NZ First’s Upper Harbour candidate, and Te Pāti Māori’s Tākuta Ferris, who is campaigning for Te Tai Tonga. ACT declined to be represented.
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Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb is the chief executive of WWF-New Zealand.
WWF-NZ put ‘10 Asks’ to parties ahead of the debate, which includes a marine protection regime that protects indigenous rights, 30% of New Zealand’s waters protected by 2030, and a ban on bottom-trawling and sea-bed mining in vulnerable ecosystems.
“New Zealand is responsible for one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the world,” said chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb. “Despite its importance, our ocean and its health is too often an afterthought – particularly in elections.”
It was crucial to put these issues on the election agenda and allow voters to see how parties are prioritising “our greatest natural resource.”
That resource is under-protected, and we have been “irresponsible,” she added. “Our marine environment is struggling. It is overfished with some fish stocks having been depleted by more than 80% since 1970. It’s polluted with around 14 million tonnes of plastic entering our ocean each year. It is warming as climate change is responsible for irreversible damage such as coral bleaching and the alteration of migration patterns.”
The debate starts 5.15pm and will be livestreamed on Stuff.
