Bay Harbour: November 14, 2018

Wednesday <strong>November</strong> <strong>14</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />

News<br />

Port company confident<br />

pile driving plan won’t affect dolphins<br />

• By Matt Salmons<br />

THE LYTTELTON Port<br />

Company has responded to<br />

further questions on efforts to<br />

mitigate the effect of pile driving<br />

on Hector’s dolphins, saying it is<br />

confident in its plans.<br />

At its meeting on October 29,<br />

the Banks Peninsula<br />

Community<br />

Board<br />

re-sent questions<br />

to LPC<br />

seeking sound<br />

recording data,<br />

Peter Davie<br />

the marine<br />

mammal<br />

management<br />

plan and details of the training<br />

of dolphin observers, which were<br />

not included in the response to<br />

their initial questions.<br />

This came after Māui and<br />

Hector’s Dolphin Defenders<br />

committee member Genevieve<br />

Robinson met with the board<br />

to outline the group’s concern<br />

around how LPC would mitigate<br />

the effect noise from pile driving<br />

on the new cruise berth project<br />

would have on the dolphins.<br />

Said community board member<br />

Felix Dawson: “It is helpful<br />

that a date has been provided<br />

for the public notification of the<br />

Marine Mammal Management<br />

Plan. It is unfortunate that LPC<br />

have chosen not to include a specific<br />

time frame for the provision<br />

of all acoustic data, as until it is<br />

produced it will remain unclear<br />

whether there is any basis to all<br />

of Ms Robinson’s concerns”<br />

In the response discussed<br />

by the board on Monday, LPC<br />

restated that the MMMP would<br />

not be publicly available until “at<br />

least two weeks before marine<br />

Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />

CONFIDENT: The Lyttelton Port Company has responded to<br />

further questions from the Banks Peninsula Community Board<br />

saying it is confident its pile driving plan will mitigate the<br />

impact on dolphins,<br />

piling commences.”<br />

Under LPC’s current time line,<br />

that would mean the document<br />

would likely be released on the<br />

harbour watch website next<br />

week.<br />

Mr Dawson said the board<br />

may ask further questions after<br />

the MMMP was released.<br />

LPC chief executive Peter<br />

Davie said the report had been<br />

prepared by some of New Zealand’s<br />

leading experts in marine<br />

mammals and marine acoustics.<br />

2019<br />

ON THE DOMAIN LINCOLN 2 MARCH 2019<br />

“It is a highly technical plan<br />

and we are confident that the<br />

plan is robust.”<br />

Mr Davie said Department of<br />

Conservation staff had reviewed<br />

and supported the plan.<br />

The sound recording data<br />

from land-based piling would<br />

likely be provided around the<br />

same time as the MMMP. Data<br />

recorded by LPC to show the<br />

number of dolphins in the<br />

harbour would not be provided<br />

until a paper on the research was<br />

published.<br />

LPC said it did “not consider<br />

it appropriate” to provide the<br />

names of marine observers,<br />

however, their number<br />

and training would be in the<br />

MMMP.<br />

Ms Robinson said she was<br />

“disappointed” more information<br />

was not provided and said<br />

the two weeks where people<br />

could provide feedback on the<br />

MMMP before piling began was<br />

“not enough.”<br />

Mr Davie said people could<br />

comment on or ask questions<br />

about the MMMP by email and<br />

LPC was happy to review any<br />

feedback on the plan.<br />

•Dolphin calf sighted, p17<br />

BAY HARBOUR<br />

In Brief<br />

PAGE 3<br />

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CRASH VICTIM NAMED<br />

Police have named the man who<br />

died after his motorcycle crashed<br />

into a van on the Governors <strong>Bay</strong><br />

side of Dyers Pass Rd at 2pm on<br />

Saturday. Christchurch 48-yearold<br />

Kyle John McKitterick died<br />

soon after St John ambulance<br />

staff took him to hospital.<br />

Governors <strong>Bay</strong> chief fire<br />

officer Andrew Norris said the<br />

driver of the van was uninjured.<br />

FLOOD FEEDBACK SOUGHT<br />

Greater Christchurch<br />

Regeneration Minister Megan<br />

Woods is calling for feedback to<br />

inform her decision on whether<br />

to use her section 71 powers to<br />

change the high flood hazard<br />

management policy in the city<br />

council’s District Plan. The<br />

changes would enable coastal<br />

residents of Redcliffs and<br />

Southshore to build or renovate<br />

on properties in a residential unit<br />

overlay, where before it had been<br />

considered nearly impossible<br />

to get consent to do so. People<br />

can provide their comments on<br />

the proposed change at www.<br />

dpmc.govt.nz/our-programmes/<br />

greater-christchurch-recovery-<br />

and-regeneration/section-71-<br />

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