FORM 1 Permitted activities: Pre-activity notice Form 1 of Schedule 5 of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects – Permitted Activities) Regulations 2013 How to use this form: This form must be completed by organisations planning to carry out a permitted activity (except seismic surveying) in accordance with: • regulation 5, 6 or 8 of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects – Permitted Activities) Regulations 2013 (PA Regulations 2013); or • regulation 7, 8 or 9 of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects – Discharge and Dumping) Regulations 2015 (D&D Regulations 2015). This form fulfils the pre-activity reporting requirements under regulation 11(a) of the PA Regulations 2013 and regulation 12(2) of the D&D Regulations 2015. Timeframe: You must provide this form to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) no less than 40 working days before starting the activity. Note: Items marked in italics are not compulsory; however, including this information will help the EPA process the form. This completed form, once received and processed by the EPA, will be posted on the EPA website. Submitting in hard copy: If you wish to provide the completed form in hard copy, post it to Environmental Protection Authority, Private Bag 63002, Wellington 6140 or fax it to +64 4 914 0433. Submitting electronically: If you wish to provide the completed form electronically, email it to [email protected]. Any form submitted electronically should be attached to an email that sets out: • the details of the person undertaking the permitted activity (the operator) • the name of the person supplying the completed form • a statement that the person is authorised to supply the form on behalf of the operator. Note: The EPA has an 8 MB limit on electronic files submitted by email. You can find and download all forms prescribed by the PA Regulations 2013 and the D&D Regulations 2015, as well as suggested templates for providing other information, on our website at www.epa.govt.nz or request them from us by contacting: Environmental Protection Authority, Phone +64 4 916 2426 Private Bag 63002, Wellington 6140 Fax +64 4 914 0433 Email [email protected] www.epa.govt.nz 2 Form 1 – Permitted activities: Pre-activity notice Operation name: Chatham Rise Seamounts Name used by operator to reference the activity described in this form: Details of person undertaking permitted activity Name of company, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) organisation or person: Contact person: Phone number: Mobile number: Fax number: Physical address: Postcode: 6021 Postal address (if different): Postcode: 6241 Email address: General description of permitted activity Type of activity: Marine scientific research ☒ Alteration, extension or removal of a permitted marine ☐ structure Prospecting ☐ Discharge of sediments from iron sand prospecting and ☐ exploration Exploration ☐ Incidental discharge of sediments from phosphate ☐ nodule or placer gold prospecting and exploration Placement or removal of submarine cables ☐ Discharge of sediments from seafloor massive sulphide ☐ prospecting and exploration Description of methods to be used to Data on faunal composition and distribution will be obtained undertake the activity: primarily by the use of NIWA’s deep towed imaging system (DTIS). This will operate approximately 2-3 m above the seafloor while collecting imagery. This gear does not touch the seafloor under normal operations. While DTIS is the principal gear we intend to use, we will also have on board a beam trawl, epibenthic sled and Van Veen grab. These sampling methods will be used to collect specimens to confirm the identification of taxa seen in the video and still imagery, to support biological and biodiversity studies, or if there is a failure with the DTIS. The gear used for this sampling will depend on the seafloor type; hard or rocky substrate is expected on the seamounts, and an epibenthic sled (1 m wide) will be the main tool used. On occasion on softer sediment a grab (surface area 0.25m2) or beam trawl (4 m width) may be deployed. Towed camera system (no seafloor contact) The NIWA “Deep-Towed-Imaging-System” (DTIS) is a deep- sea camera frame that is towed with the vessel at slow speed (Figure 1). It is kept at a height of 2-3 m above the seafloor September 2015 EPA0374 3 Form 1 – Permitted activities: Pre-activity notice while video and still camera imagery is collected over distances of up to 2 km. It also has a small CTD and other instrumentation attached. It has a positioning beacon and altimeter to help safe operation. This gear will be used to undertake baseline and monitoring surveys of the large animals (>2cm) that live on or just above the seafloor. This gear will not touch the seafloor. Figure 1: The DTIS towed camera system Seamount sled This is small epibenthic sled,1.5 m long, by 1.0 m wide, and has a vertical opening of 0.5 m (Figure 2). It is fitted with a positioning beacon, meaning we can target fauna of interest that we see in camera transects to collect live specimens. It is towed at 1-1.5 knots. It is designed to operate on rough or hard seafloor, and to run over the seabed surface, and not dig in. There may be up to 12 sled tows. Each will be targeted and sample a maximum of 500 m2 of seabed. In total, about 6,000 m2 (0.006 km2) of seafloor may be disturbed. Figure 2: Seamount sled, designed to sample larger organisms living on the seabed. The mouth width is 1 m and mesh size is 25 mm Beam trawl The beam trawl consists of a net attached to a 4 m wide beam that is towed slowly at 1.5 knots for up to 1 km of soft-smooth September 2015 EPA0374 4 Form 1 – Permitted activities: Pre-activity notice seafloor to sample benthic invertebrate fauna and small fish (Figure 3). The beam trawl has a ground-rope with small rubber discs that prevent it digging into the sediment. Allowing for up to 6 deployments, the total area covered would be 24,000 m2 (0.024 km2). Figure 3: Beam trawl, designed to sample larger organisms living on the seabed. The mouth width is 4 m and cod-end mesh size is 25 mm. Van Veen grab This is a small bucket-like grab that takes a sample of the upper few cm of the seabed and covers an area of 0.25m2 (Figure 4). Up to 6 grab samples might be taken if it is felt that biological samples can be collected without having to use larger towed gear which have more impact. The maximum total area would be 1.5m2. Figure 4: Van Veen grab, designed to take a small sample of the upper layers of the seabed. September 2015 EPA0374 5 Form 1 – Permitted activities: Pre-activity notice Timing of permitted activity Proposed start date: 17/07/2020 Approximate duration of activity: 16 days. The vessel schedule may alter, with a possible start date of 1st August, so dates may change but duration will remain the same. Timetable: Date Activities Time (days) 15 July Mobilisation, sail from Wellington. 1 16 July Transit to Graveyard seamounts 1 Survey operations on Graveyard seamount complex. 8 Survey operations on Andes seamount complex. 3 27 July Transit to Wellington 2 30 July Demobilisation, Wellington 1 Location of permitted activity Co-ordinates of area where activity will be undertaken: (Provide four sets of co-ordinates in latitude and longitude or submit a shape file or KML/KMZ file.) Set 1 41°30’ S, 174°20’ W Set 2 41°30’ S, 179°00’ E Set 3 45°00’ S, 174°20’ W Set 4 45°00’ S, 179°00’ E ☐ I have attached a shape or KML/KMZ file Map: (Provide a map that shows the location of your activity relative to the New Zealand coastline) September 2015 EPA0374 6 Form 1 – Permitted activities: Pre-activity notice Within this general area are the two targeted seamount complexes (Graveyard and Andes). If progress permits, or if bad weather forces a change in the camera-based work, some additional sled sampling/beam trawling/grab sampling may be carried out on fished seamounts of the “Big Chief” complex (south of Andes), Shipley Seamount (north of Graveyard). These are within the coordinates given above and shown as the dashed line in the figure below. Describe the current state of the area and the surrounding environment, including any known sensitive environments: The seamount features of both the Graveyard and Andes seamount complexes have been surveyed by NIWA in the past. The Graveyard comprises 28 small volcanic cones covering an area of about 140 km2 on the northern flank of the Chatham Rise (Clark et al. 2010). Orange roughy aggregate for spawning on several of the features, and they have been commercially fished since the mid-1990s. A number of unfished seamounts have extensive areas of reef-like coral habitat composed of stony corals Solenosmilia variabilis and Madrepora oculata. These offer an open-lattice type structure that is habitat for diverse benthic invertebrate communities, including squat lobsters, seastars, brittle stars, polychaete worms, and crabs (Clark & Rowden 2009).The stony coral communities are recognised as “sensitive habitats”, and are confirmed as extensive on Gothic, Pyre, and Ghoul features in the complex, They occur also in patchy locations on several other features (Clark et al 2010b). Time series of surveys have been carried out (2001, 2006, 2009, 2015) to monitor changes in the benthic fauna on these seamounts following the closure of several in 2001, but to date no recovery of the stony coral reefs has been observed (Williams et al.