The Huon Gulf is the final location for the mine waste that will be generated from the Wafi Golpu gold and silver mine project. The mining method is underground mine and will generate a big amount of waste over its 28+ years estimated lifespan. The mining company has convinced the government of Papua New Guinea that dumping the mine waste in the sea is the safest option for mine waste disposal. The company will use the Deep Sea Tailing Placement (DSTP) method, where waste generated from the mine site will be piped 65km from the mine site through the city of Lae to Wanang where the outfall is situated. It is assumed that when the waste exits the outfall pipe, the waste will adhere to the law of gravity and will flow into the Markham Canyon. This essay gives a background to the Huon Gulf on issues that are of interest to the mine waste placement issue. The next essay will build on this background information to explain why DSTP is not a good idea for the Huon Gulf.
The Huon Gulf
The Houn Gulf is outside the Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture mine impact area but the sea and the coastal communities
are connected to the project because the sea will be the resting place for the mine waste.
Currently, the Huon Gulf coastline runs from Wasu all the way to Morobe Patrol post and covers 5 districts out of the 9 Morobe
districts. The biggest district is the Huon Gulf that runs from maus Markham to Morobe Patrol Post. The Lae open encompasses
the Lae city Area between the Busu and the Markham River. Beyond the Busu river to the Vitiaz Strait is the Tewaii Siassi.
The Geomorphology
The outlay of the Huon Gulf is a result of the geological history of this land. The mainland of PNG can be divided into four tectonic sections. The Fly Platform which is part of the stable Australian continent that extends into the Western Province. North of this is the Papuan Fold Belt. This is an active area which was previously under the ocean but the limestone features were pushed up by the fold and fault action of the Australian plate pushing against he pacific plate. The third is the New Guinea Highlands north of the Papuan Fold Belt, consist a folded and faulted landscapes which collided with the leading edge of the Australian plate during the Oligocene and Miocene. To the north of the New Guinea Highlands, and separated from them by the Markham, Ramu and Sepik river valleys, lie a series of volcanic arc terrains that have been pushed into the island of New Guinea in a series of collisions in the neogene. The active Finisterre collision, which is the landmass docked into landmass the city of Lae sits on, is the youngest accretion event in PNG. The Torricelli, the Adelbert, the Finisterre Range (also Sarawaget) and the Owen Stanley ranges were autonomous islands that were pushed up against the leading edge of the Australian Plate. The point of contact where the Finisterre range docks into the New Guinea mainland is the Markham – Ramu Fault. The Markham Ramu Fault is the edge of the two plates. The Huon Peninsula got accreted to the main land of New Guinea about 2.5 million years B.C. The point of connection for the two separate lands runs along the foothills of the Finisterre and links the Markham to the Ramus and to the Sepik.
The Ramu Valley and the Sepik Planes and the Markham Valley are recently formed from the sediments from the erosions of
the surrounding mountains.
The Australia plate is still moving northward. This gives rise to many earthquakes in the region. There were close to 170
earthquakes measured between 2000 and 2016.
Oceanography
There are two seasons in PNG that cycles between 3 and 4 years. A normal season is when the rain days and the sun days are
balanced. The El Nino and La Nina are the two seasons under the El Niño and the Southern Oscillation, also known as ENSO which is a periodic fluctuation in sea surface temperature (El Niño) and the air pressure of the overlying atmosphere (Southern Oscillation) across the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
The El Niño season is the dry season that happens from October to March. In El Niño there is less rain with hot days and cold nights. The opposite of El Nino is La Nina. La Nina is the wet and flooding season that runs from April to October. The nights are warm due to the clouds and the days are cold with increased rain.
The Huon Gulf sees two prevailing currents during the year. The South East trade winds that blow from the south piling water
against Lae city and squeezing part of it out through the Vitiaz Strait. The North westerly that blows water from the Bismark
through the Vitiaz Strait and into the Solomon sea.
The prevailing wind for the Houn Gulf is south easterly trade winds that piles water against the Huon Gulf Coastline. This also
forces water between the Vitiaz Straits that give rise to the treacherous waters of the “bobongara”.
There is another phenomenon that will have major impact on the mine waste issue. The Equatorial undercurrent (ECU) is an undercurrent that flows west, opposite the prevalent equatorial current which flows from the East to West. The counter current flows at a depth of around 200 m and flows against the surface flow. This current starts from the Solomon sea and is squeezed through the Vitiaz Strait in the Bismark Sea and becomes the ECU. This has been linked to a supply of minerals and irons from the New Guinea mainland to the Seas of the West Pacific. The dinoflaggelates that is commonly found in the Americas depends on the metals that flow with the Equatorial undercurrent. This has implications for DSTP into the Huon Gulf.
Tuna migratory path in PNG follows the NICU, the SGU and from the Solomon sea which is considered a breeding ground.
Furthermore, the city of Lae is located between two big rivers, the Markham river and the Busu river. The Markham is bigger with more silt load than the Busu. The Markham canyon bathymetry is a function of the interplay between Markham and Busu river over thousands of years. The placement of waste into the Huon Gulf from a 24 hour operation is similar to creating a third big river and placing it next to Busu. This has implications for the bathymetry of the Lae waterfront going into the future.
The People
Huon Gulf coastline stretches for 293 km from the Umboi Islands, Sialum, Finschhafen, Labuta, Lae city, to Morobe patrol post and include an estimated 400,000 people. Most of the people living along the Huon Gulf Coastline are the ancestral Austronesian peoples, who arrived approximately 3,500 years ago from the South Eastern Asia. They brought cultural traditions, as part of a
gradual seafaring migration from Southeast Asia, possibly China.
The ancestors of present-day people along the coast from Tami Island, Labuta and Salamaua as far as Siboma were connected
through traditional canoes for trading, communal singsing for unity, peace following traditional patterns of food harvest from the land that comes with fish from the sea. The Tami islanders specialized in making mats and bags and bowls and carvings, which
they traded with the Bukawa as far as Salamaua for taro and sago and clay pots. Similarly, the Siboma further south trade with the
Busama for clay pots. While the family connections are still intact today through cultural groupings and the sea environment gives
them that sense of identity and direction in life.
Huon Gulf Economic Contribution to PNG
The Huon Gulf hosts PNG’s second city. The city of Lae is PNG’s second city that has a population of 200,000 (estimated from
2011 census). The city is low lying with the highest point just about 8 m above sea level. Lae is also the industrial capital for
PNG with many important businesses operating along the waterfront. This includes businesses such as Puma Oil, South Pacific
Larger and the Yacht Club.
Lae also hosts PNG’s busiest international sea port. The port supplies the whole of PNG (the Highlands, the Islands, the Momase and the Oro province) with the exception of the 3 southern region provinces that gets their supplies from Port Moresby.
Fisheries
PNG has the largest economic zone (EEZ) in the South Pacific. The fisheries sector comprises large-scale deep-water tuna (mainly
skipjack and yellowfin), as well as barramundi, lobster, shark, crabs, prawns, beche-de-mer (sea cucumbers), and pearl oysters.
Fishing is mainly conducted by artisanal communities in inland and shallow coastal waters, medium sized domestic prawn and
long-line boats, and foreign purse seine tuna operators. PNG tuna fisheries contributes 15% of total global fisheries market this is
50% of the Nauru Agreement (PNA) countered. The PNA controls the world’s largest sustainable tuna purse seine fishery.
The Huon Gulf is a route for migratory species like the Tuna, while the Solomon sea is a possible breeding ground for Tuna. For
Morobe province, sea food has been a main source of revenue for PNG. Every year Morobe alone produces tonnage of
beachedemer into internal market. The Labuta and the Huon Gulf fishermen association catch fish to cater for the fish consumption demand in Lae City Supermarkets and Hotels. This generates high turn over of the cash income in PNG’s second largest city.
Local communities catch fish from the traditional fishing grounds and sell to earn cash income to pay for medical, school, transport and community obligations. Coastal fishermen catch fish to feed the residents of Lae city at the Lae main market. Like many small-scale fisheries in PNG, very little or no scientific data is available on the resource, its environment and the overall fishery activity.
Historical data shows that the Huon Gulf and the seas surrounding the Huon Peninsula provide considerable fish production for this small-scale fishery. Finfish landing data accumulated since 1990 indicated increased production over years. For example, between1990 and 1992 reported an annual catch of about 100 tonnes which increased to about 130 tonnes per year between 1993 and 1996. A maximum landing figure was recorded in 1994 of 138.154 tonnes (MCFDP database).
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG (ELCPNG)
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG (ELCPNG) is the second government of the people. The church is present with the people where the government is not. The church has been with the people for over 100 years. The church abhors injustice. The Church provides a platform for a united voice of the Huon Gulf communities who are considered by the Mine Plan as outside of the Impact Area. However, they will be affected by the proposed DSTP through the ocean connection. Without the Church, these communities may otherwise remain voiceless.
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