Tuesday 2 October 2012

NAUTILUS PRACTISES TO DECEIVE

Poet Robert Burns wrote a poem that said " Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive". 

Nautilus Minerals has woven a tangled web on their planned mining of the tuna breeding grounds in the Magidus Square. Please click:

NO ANSWERS TO SOLWARA QUESTIONS

There are conservation criteria to which the Nautilus management has been writing. The area of the proposed mining is in the Magidus Square. But we are told, the tuna will be in the top 400 metres.

They are up there. We are down here. This is a loud admission that the mining will be in the tuna spawning grounds.

But Nautilus will not use the word "breeding grounds". They are talking about "fishing grounds".

There can not be blasting in the tuna grounds or even 20 kms from the breeding grounds. Sound and percussion travels far under water. Whales and dolphins communicate around the world with their low frequency calls.

So there is no blasting we are told. But how do they get the sea bed up to the ships? It is by magic. Fairies will sprinkle fairy dust. What if the lodes of copper are 200 metres under the sea bed?

But not to worry. Only fairy magic will bring the rocks up to the ship. Then these will be dewatered and the offal returned to the bottom of the sea.

It will all be environmentally caring. Even the water will be returned to the bottom of the sea. What lovely miners. Does this mean that there will be pollutants in the water?

Will there be smelting on the ship? Smelting of gold will involve arsenic and cyanide. Will these be returned to the bottom of the sea?

We are told that the fish will be in the top 400 metres. The management does not mention the canyons of benthic biomass of nutrients at the bottom of the sea.

There is mixing of the waters in the top and bottom layers. That will increase with the global warming. The fish in the top 400 metres eat the benthic nutrients from the bottom layer.

That means they will eat the pollutants lovingly transported from the ship to the bottom of the sea. The canyons will be wells of pollutants. These are meant to be wells of nutrients.

Then we are told in The National 3 October 2012 that Nautilus is taking steps to ensure that Solwara 1 will be "repopulated" following resource production. That should baffle a few brains.

How does that happen? There will be a nearby "set aside area". They will bring Moses back to part the waves and a troop of fairies to sprinkle more fairy dust.

They are telling the community they plan to repopulate the deep ocean floor.

That would have to be a world first. The Department of Fisheries will need a mini-submarine to check the work.

The report by Martyn Namarong quotes an expert who says that there is only 30 months of minerals on the sea bed. Does that mean that operations will then move out? Please click:

Seabed mining: a lot of reasons we don’t need it

Or do they have options for further sites in their contract? Does it mean that Nautilus will move forever around the Magadus Square?

There is another excellent report on PNG Attitude on the importance of the tuna industry. Please click:

Tuna – ignoring the $2 billion a year winning ticket

WILL MINING INDUSTRY DESTROY TUNA INDUSTRY?

It is pleasing to read the letters to the editor from Nautilus management and realize that they are writing in direct response to the reports on this blog. There are over 900 hits on all the reports about deep sea mining on this blog.

Bruce Copeland BA BEdSt
teacher of Biology

including marine biology
focused on estuarine nurseries
and paths of migration, undersea
benthic biomass and pollution of
rivers and ocean.

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