Turbines 'threaten to doom' snapper | Northland News | Local News in Northland

An electricity generation proposal seen as threatening the spawning grounds of 98 per cent of New Zealand snapper will be strenuously opposed by some people in the Kaipara district.

Kaipara Mayor Neil Tiller, Te Uri o Hau leaders and others involved with the Kaipara Harbour last week launched a campaign to stop Crest Energy gaining government clearance to install 200 tidal turbines on the seabed at the harbour entrance.

The battle plan was drawn up at a public meeting which Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira called at the Naumai Marae at Ruawai on Friday to air issues involved with the controversial scheme.

Mr Harawira told the Northern Advocate the tidal turbine technology was untested in any major Western country and  the project could destroy Ngati Whatua and its Te Uri o Hau hapu.

About 60 people  voiced similar fears as they questioned two Crest Energy consultants who attended the meeting to explain environmental aspects of the company's proposal.

Crest lodged an application for a resource consent to install the 200 turbines three years ago, later modifying its plans to a staged installation starting with 20 turbines and the  balance over the following nine years.

A Northland Regional Council hearings committee approved the project with conditions last year. A Te Uri o Hau Settlement Trust appeal against that decision was heard in the Environment Court in Whangarei last month.

Crest consultants Garry Venus and Luke Gowing, a presentation by the trust's Environs Holdings manager Julieane Chetham, and information raised by the audience informed the meeting that:

Each of the 200-tonne turbines would be 24m high. Their vane turbines would rotate five or six times a minute, generating a total of 200 megawatts, enough to meet Northland demand for the next 10 years.

The turbines would go into the main harbour channel off North Head, which is about 31m deep at low tide. The 200 turbines would extend about  5km along the channel in an area  estimated to cover 900ha where fishing would not be permitted.

A tidal turbine 20 per cent  the size of those Crest proposes is being trialled in open ocean at the Orkney Isles. People at the meeting suspected easy access at the Kaipara Harbour entrance made it a cheaper prospect than an ocean installation.

Messrs Venus and Gowing said marine experts, including NIWA and DoC staff, had assured the Environment Court the power generation project would not harm orca and other whales or disturb the spawning beds  that provided 98 per cent of New Zealand snapper.

Crest experts were also convinced the turbines would not cause scouring that would alter the seabed.

But  former Kaipara mayor Graeme Ramsey said: "You can have any scientific theory you are prepared to pay for."

Present Mayor Mr Tiller said that if the court approved the Crest scheme, opponents would have only 20 days after the decision was released  to convince Conservation Minister Tim Groser not to give the project a green light. He suggested Mr Harawira should line up Mr Groser and Prime Minister John Key for a Kaipara visit as soon as the decision was out.

"As soon as they hear the Kaipara breeds 98 per cent of the snapper, people from Invercargill north will support you fellas. New Zealand without snapper - it's a scary thought," he said.