An off-shore mining company has been cleared to explore the New Zealand habitat of the world's rarest dolphin, in a decision described as "absolutely absurd" by environmentalists.
A large section of the west coast of New Zealand's North Island is the only home of the Maui's dolphin, a subspecies of the Hector's dolphin, and a protected sanctuary.
The dolphins were last year thought to number between 57 and 75 adults adults, their population dwindled by set net fishing and trawling.
On Thursday, it was revealed seabed mining company Ironsands Offshore Mining had earlier this year been granted permission to carry out tests, including potentially drilling, across a 220-square-kilometre area of coast that overlaps with the sanctuary.
The law technically allows mining further than about two nautical miles from shore while the sanctuary goes to about 12, according to the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Environmentalists say they are shocked and are calling for the government to stop all attempts to mine the seabed.
"It beggars belief," Greenpeace NZ's executive director Russel Norman said.
"The idea that New Zealand would allow seabed mining in a marine mammal sanctuary is absolutely absurd."
The exploration permit was granted by a department of the government's business ministry.
However, the company will need further consent if it decides to go ahead with mining.
The conservation department says it can only get involved if the company wants to proceed.
"DOC would have significant concerns about the risk commercial mining would pose to Maui dolphins in this area and would take a keen interest in a consent application," the department's manager of marine species Ian Angus said.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage - a member of New Zealand's Green Party who took up the job late last year - said she was disappointed with the call and that her staff were looking to strengthen sanctuary laws.
"If it came across my desk I would not have approved it," she said.
"I am very aware of the short-comings of the Marine Mammals Protection Act."
But the WWF-New Zealand chief Livia Esterhazy said the stakes were too high.
"While we understand that those applying for the permit and those granting the permit are simply following the letter of the law, you have to wonder whether they are thinking straight," she said.
"Maui dolphins live nowhere else on the planet ... We have a responsibility to the world and to our children."
Comment has been requested from the miner's parent company, Cass Offshore Minerals.
