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The federal government has green-lit a proposal to dig up enough sand from Western Australia’s seabed to fill 28,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, to be shipped overseas and used in construction projects.
The proposal, put forward by Dutch-owned dredging company Boskalis, would take sand from the Cambridge Gulf in the Kimberley over the next 15 years.
The plans have raised the ire of environment groups, who are calling on the state environment minister to now step in and block the “destructive” plans, which they say will place vulnerable species at risk.
Multiple beaches surrounding the proposed underwater mining area are nesting sites for flatback turtles – nationally listed as vulnerable to extinction – in particular at Cape Domett.
The turtle’s internesting distribution is also within the proposed seabed mining area, also important habitat for the snubfin dolphin and the humpback dolphin, another vulnerable species.
Kimberly Riskas, from the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said Cape Domett, at the mouth of the Cambridge Gulf, was one of the most important, highest-density nesting sites for flatback turtles globally.
“The annual nesting population is on the order of more than 3000 nesting females. Research shows this nesting population is genetically distinct, making its survival critical to the species as a whole,” she said.
She said the proposal’s approval conditions prohibited sand mining during peak flatback turtle nesting season (August-September), but long-term research and monitoring showed this population nests year-round.
“For this reason, it’s concerning that the Australian government has approved industrial sand extraction so close to this important nesting population, and during times which could disrupt nesting turtles’ behaviour,” Riskas said.
Despite calls for the project’s proposal to be fully assessed by both the WA Environmental Protection Agency and its federal counterpart due to the potential risk to vulnerable species, it has not been fully assessed by either.
The WA EPA has recommended the project in Cambridge Gulf proceed, stating that the area is “not important for marine mammals”.
Federally, the proposal was determined a controlled action and a spokesperson for the National Environmental Protection Agency said the approval conditions placed on the project included measures to avoid and mitigate impacts on listed threatened species and communities.
“The approval conditions include a requirement for the proponent to develop and implement an Environmental Management Plan (EMP), for example, to avoid and mitigate harm on protected matters including EPBC Act listed marine species such as the flatback turtle, Australian snubfin dolphin and Australian humpback dolphin, among other species,” they said.
“The National EPA is currently awaiting the EMP from the proponent. The proponent must not commence the action until the EMP has been approved.”
The WA EPA is now considering appeals on this project, but the final decision will be in the hands of state Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn.
Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard called on Swinbourn to act.
“In giving federal environmental approval the minister, Murray Watt, has blatantly ignored expert advice that the area is globally significant for marine life, including threatened turtles, dolphins and sawfish, and that the proponent has failed to present essential and reliable scientific evidence that its project will not cause significant and irreversible harm to threatened species and the Kimberley marine environment,” he said.
“Given the proponent holds other seabed sand mining leases in the area, this is potentially just the first stage of a much larger and even more destructive and disruptive seabed sand mining industry in Cambridge Gulf.
“Environment groups will be examining all remaining options to prevent this ill-conceived proposal from being implemented.”
NSW banned seabed mining in coastal waters in 2024 and in the Northern Territory, just 75 kilometres away from Boskalis’ proposal, the government converted its long-standing moratorium on seabed mining into a complete ban in 2021.
Environs Kimberley is calling on WA to do the same.
Swinbourn’s office has been contacted for comment.
