Thread by @KASM_NZ

Yesterday Dr Leigh Torres gave evidence to the EPA on the blue whales in the South Taranaki Bight and how they might be affected by #seabedmining.
Her testimony was eye-opening.
We absolutely have our own, genetically distinct, population of pygmy blue whales in the bight
A 🧵

Her team documented blue whales in the Sth Taranaki Bight in 2014, 16, 17, publishing 10 peer reviewed papers.
They identified individuals, compared them w photos of blue whales in Australia & the Antarctic: no matches.
"The NZ blue whales have not been seen out of NZ waters."

They had 5 hydrophones down for 2 years, which recorded blue whales "daily and constantly."
They found a blue whale presence at each hydrophone every day of the year, across all regions, every day.
These animals rely on the Bight for feeding opportunities in spring & summer.

"We also documented calves, mothers bringing calves back to teach them it's an important area. We documented nursing, and recently had documented likely breeding behaviour in the breeding months may-august. Very high rates of mating calls" (2 types of call: foraging and mating)

Seabed mining's low level noise wld spread far & wide across the Bight.
"It'd be like living next to a vacuum cleaner for 35 years."
Increased physiological stress will have impacts.
Stress causes higher rates of disease or heart problems in humans; it's the same with whales

In 2016 there was a heatwave, which had a marked affect on the whales.
"We heard less of that foraging call during the heatwave year than in 2017...
"What was particularly interesting is that in the following reproductive season there were much reduced rates of breeding"

"This shows the vulnerability of that population to climate change and all other impacts they might be facing.
"Climate change is causing temperature ranges and current flows and things we've never seen before."

But this year on another research trip to the Bight, Leigh Torres' team found no whales AT ALL. And no krill.

"It was quite scary to be honest"
"These animals are already dealing with impacts from climate change, so adding another stressor [like seabed mining] is quite risky."

This testimony alone, to us, says we should not let TTR dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed every year for 35 years, and dump 45m tonnes back down.
To threaten our own population of blue whales is unthinkable.
#banseabedmining #defendthedeep #saveourseas