Niwa

The findings come as a mining company waits for the EPA to decide whether it can extract iron, titanium and vanadium from the nearby seabed.

Research trawl surveys have avoided the Pātea Banks because of uncharted rocky reefs and frequent rough seas. Matthews said that during the Coastal Plan process the Department of Conservation and Forest and Bird highlighted the lack of spatial planning and mapping of significant sites in the Coastal Marine Area (CMA). "Paradoxically, there has been a wider general perception that subtidal reefs are rare in the region, and combined with the remote access and weather issues, this region has been one of the least studied coastal regions of New Zealand," said NIWA. There were blue cod nurseries at four sites. The sonar survey by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) found the wide continental shelf of the Pātea Banks is studded with rocky reefs unusually far from the coast. A high-tech search of the seabed near Pātea has found an unexpected bounty of reefs teeming with life, alongside a zone targeted by a would-be seabed miner.