Stop Deep Sea Mining in Hawai'i's Waters

Aloha Hawai’i ‘Ohana,

Mother Ocean needs Your help with Urgent Action to Stop Deep Sea Mining! 

Support Senate Bill 2575, Hawai’i State Bill to Stop Deep Sea Mining in Hawai'i's Waters. 

 

Please take two minutes to Submit Testimony by Tuesday April 2nd at 4pm HST.

The hearing of this Bill is at 4pm HST on Tuesday April 2nd at Capitol.Hawaii.gov
SB 2575 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE Via videoconference, Conference Room 308, State Capitol

 

Steps:
- Go online to capitol.hawaii.gov
- Search SB 2575
- Register and Submit
(PDF template OR your comments into comment box)

 

OR

- Go to: Submit Testimony Link
- Click on orange button 'Submit Testimony'

- Register and Submit
(PDF template below OR your comments into comment box)

 

If you are an Upcountry Maui resident,
PLEASE let them know you are in Rep. Yamashita’s district! 

See infographic (to share) & PDF template (to upload).

OR

Make it easy and submit comment in submission comments box.

 

Sample comments for comments box:

As a Hawai’i resident, I request your support of SB 2575 during the Finance Committee hearing as this is a very important issue to me and for the future of Hawai’i. Mining in Hawai’i’s waters will be detrimental to Hawai’i’s culture and economies. 

It is simply not worth the risk. The Ocean supports life itself. What we do to the Ocean we do to ourselves. I strongly oppose any form of deep sea mining, and thus am in support of SB 2575 to protect our culture, our home, our ocean, and our island Earth.

 

The Ocean supports life itself. What we do to the Ocean we do to ourselves. 

Let’s come together to Defend the Deep! 

Mahalo nui loa, 

Alisha Shanti

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Thanks @MauiNuiMakaiNetwork
SAMPLE PDF Template to create a copy, save in Google sheet, download as PDF and upload to Submit link:

Testimony in SUPPORT of SB 2575 (HSCR 1269-24):

“RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT:

Prohibits the mining, extraction, and removal of minerals from the 

seabed in all state marine waters, with certain exemptions…”

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COMMITTEE ON FINANCE

April 2, 2024, 4:00 PM

Via videoconference, Conference Room 308, State Capitol, 415 South Beretania Street

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Aloha kākou Committee on Finance,

My name is {your full name} and I am from {location in Hawai'i}.I am submitting {as an individual OR behalf organization name}

I submit this testimony in strong support of SB 2575 (HSCR 1269-24) to prohibit the mining, extraction, and removal of minerals from the seabed in all state marine waters.

 

Mining in Hawai’i’s waters will be detrimental to Hawai’i’s culture and economies. 

It is simply not worth the risk. The Ocean supports life itself. What we do to the Ocean we do to ourselves. I strongly oppose any form of deep sea mining, and thus am in support of SB 2575 to protect our culture, our home, our ocean, and our island Earth. 

 

• The Kumulipo is the Hawaiian creation chant, consisting of 2,000 lines that explain the beginning genealogy of all creatures. The Kumulipo begins with cosmic darkness. The first lines of the chant tells us that we come from the deep seas, created from the “walewale”, synonymous with the primordial sludges of the ocean bottom. From the deepest depths, all of the creatures that come up through the vertical water column into nearshore waters, the lands, hills and the mountains, and even taking flight into the sky - are all part of our creation genealogy. And we as a people don’t come into being until much much later in the creation of this Honua, or shared island Earth. When we humans are ushered in, we have an inheritance of caring for those elders that precede us.

 

• The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has issued 19 licenses for mining exploration in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone - an area of the Pacific Ocean beginning 500 miles south of Hawai‘i, covering 1.7 million square miles stretching all the way to Mexico. To mine from the seafloor is to enter the realm of our creation itself. If you intrude into this sacred place of creation, this is an ultimate kind of destruction with no known timeline of recovery and should not occur. That “walewale” will never return. These observations are backed by science. To cite one study, Thiel et al found that after 7 years following deep sea mining, sediment-dwelling animals only returned to less than 15% of pre-disturbance levels (Thiel et al 2001).

 

• It's now been 130 years since the translation of the Kumulipo and the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign nation, but the absence from the international arena means Hawai‘i has never been seated at the table where these rules and regulations have been made by nation states - where nations created the Law of the High Seas and decided they could draw lines across the ocean and separate us all into authorities and boundaries. It’s clear to us as indigenous Hawaiians, there's no line across the ocean that separates us. In our mind, there is no division of the seas. The animals of the sea don’t see a boundary any more than we humans see a boundary. With the proximity of the Hawaiian Islands to the proposed mining zone, it would be foolish to only be concerned with our boundary and to think that everything on the other side of that boundary will have no impact on us.

 

• I challenge the perception that culture can only be tangible artifacts. When we travel across the seas at great distances, we are intimate with observation and knowing the currents. We know the waves and their movements, the clouds and the weather. We know the resources that are in the deep seas. We are the culture of the people of the deep sea and our culture is intangible. The ocean is everything to us. It’s what we depend upon for our sustenance. It’s unacceptable to proceed with activities that will disrupt creations related to the deep sea, ultimately disrupting the food chain which now we have subsisted on for millenia. In those conversations of mining, there’s no consideration that we come from this space. It’s about minerals. It’s about resources. It’s about extraction with no regard for culture. It’s that that bothers me about this process of deep sea mining.

 

There is a culture of the deep seas and I am here to be the voice for that place. I strongly oppose any form of deep sea mining, and thus am in support of SB 2575 to protect our culture, our home, our ocean, and our island Earth.

Mahalo nui loa for considering my testimony.

‘O ke aloha nō,
{your full name}

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DONE: ACTION REQUEST to Schedule SB 2575 for Hearing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aloha Hawai'i 'Ohana, the Ocean needs your help to Stop Deep Sea Mining in Hawai'i's Waters.
Please take two minutes by April 5, 2024 to Call or Email Chair Kyle Yamashita's office and request a hearing of Senate Bill 2575 (SB 2575) in the Finance Committee. 

Chair Kyle Yamashita | Call 808-586-6200 | Email RepYamashita@Capitol.Hawaii.Gov
 

Information below, Call & Email Templates, courtesy of TheOxygenProject.com
SB 2575: Hawai’i State Bill to Stop Deep-Sea Mining

Urgent Action Needed: Call and email Finance Committee Chair, Vice Chair & other Finance Committee Members.

1. Chair Kyle Yamashita (repyamashita@capitol.hawaii.gov, 808-586-6200) 

2. Vice Chair: Lisa Kitagawa (repkitagawa@capitol.hawaii.gov, 808-586-8540)

3. Other members (Prioritize any members in or near your district)

What is SB 2575? SB 2575 prohibits the mining, extraction, and removal of minerals from the seabed in all state marine waters; and prohibits the issuance of any permit for or in connection with the development or operation of any facility or infrastructure associated with the mining, extraction, or removal of minerals from the seabed within state marine waters.

Objective: SB 2575 was introduced (same language as SB376 SD2 HD1 from last year), passed unanimously in the State Senate, and was referred to three House Committees. Energy & Environmental Protection (EEP), Water & Land (WAL), and Finance (FIN). The bill has already passed the Energy & Environmental Protection (EEP) and Water & Land (WAL) Committees, but it must be scheduled, heard, and passed by the Finance Committee (FIN). Important to note: last year the bill passed through EEP & WAL, then it stalled in the FIN committee, overseen by Chair Kyle Yamashita, because it was not scheduled for a hearing. This year we need the Finance Committee to make sure the bill is scheduled for a hearing and we have from now through April 5th for this to happen. We need your support to make sure Chair Yamashita and the entire Finance Committee understand that this is a priority.​
 

Call Script Template:

Hi Chair Yamashita,

My name is ____(if you’re a business owner or part of District 12 please include), I understand Bill SB2575, preventing deep-sea mining in our state waters, was referred to the Finance Committee for scheduling and consideration after passing the House Committees for Energy & Environmental Protection (EEP) and Water & Land (WAL) and passing unanimously in the State Senate. I am aware that last year this bill similarly was sent to the Finance Committee, but that it was not scheduled for a hearing.  Today I’m calling to request that Bill SB2575 is scheduled for a hearing by the Finance Committee as this is a very important issue to me and for the future of Hawai’i. Deep-seabed mining presents (insert chosen argument(s), choose any bullet below):

​General: Mining in Hawaiian waters would be detrimental to Hawai’i’s culture and economies. It is simply not worth the risk. As a Hawai’i resident, I urgently ask you to schedule SB 2575 so it can be considered by the House. Mahalo.
 

• Tourism Risk: Deep Sea Mining is a direct threat to Hawai’i's largest industry, tourism. Tourism represents roughly a quarter of Hawai’i's economy. Deep sea mining in Hawaiian waters would put at risk billions of dollars in annual Visitor Spending and in State Tax Revenue (in the first seven months of 2023, total visitor spending was $12.83 billion and in all of 2022, visitor spending was $19.29 billion). Tourism is dependent on Hawai’i’s healthy waters, ocean life, and pristine beaches. Experts agree, the effects of deep sea mining are irreversible and devastating to marine ecosystems and the repercussions will be felt throughout the water column and beyond. Deep Sea Mining is a direct threat to our largest industry and state revenue and ensures permanent damage to our ocean, culture and economies.

• Financial Risk: Financial institutions, like The World Bank, European Investment Bank, UNEP-FI, are all warning that DSM is not financially viable. Deep sea-mining is an  “unproven industrial endeavor fraught with technical, financial, and regulatory uncertainty, lacking in social license (e.g., Indigenous opposition, human rights concerns), and carrying significant potential financial and legal liabilities for both public and private investors”. 

• Fisheries Risk: Deep-sea mining jeopardizes fisheries and the fishing industry is calling for a pause on deep-sea mining. Studies show, if mining proceeds, it could damage the $5.5 billion Pacific tuna industry. Deep-seabed mining would impact breathing, feeding and stress hormone levels and the release of toxic metals during mining, while noise and light from around-the-clock extraction operations could affect breeding and migration patterns. (Source: Bloomberg, Deep Sea Mining Threatens $5.5 Billion Tuna Industry, Study Finds) 

• Cultural Heritage Risk: Indigenous voices, scientists, and civil society, are calling for a moratorium on deep-seabed mining. The Kumulipo tells us that the Ko’a, or coral polyp, was the first organism created, Hawaiians recognize that these organisms are the building blocks for all life on this shared planet we call Honua. Deep-sea mining would threaten Hawaiian heritage. You can be a champion for Native Hawaiian and pan-Pacific voices by scheduling and supporting SB2575. 

• Fellow States & Countries Opposition: California, Oregon, and Washington have all passed similar legislation prohibiting deep-sea mining in state waters. In international waters, now 25 countries calling for a precautionary pause, moratorium or ban, including Pacific nations Palau, Fiji, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). With 18 of the 31 exploration licenses already awarded in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), deep-sea mining is dangerously poised to be in Hawai’i's backyard, with the nearest claim area to Hawai’i's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) being 467 km, threatening our culture and economies including tourism and fisheries. 

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