29 April 2008

There could be some pretty nasty creatures living in Opua Harbour and biosecurity officials are determined to find out exactly what is lurking below the water surface in the Bay of Islands.

From Saturday, MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) will be looking at what’s living in Opua Harbour as part of a nationwide surveillance programme targeted at detecting a range of different marine pests.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has been contracted to undertake the survey, and divers will be on site, weather permitting, from Saturday to Wednesday.

MAFBNZ’s targeted marine surveillance programme started earlier this year and is looking out for a range of unwanted marine pests in some of New Zealand’s busiest and therefore high risk locations – ports and marinas of first entry for international vessels.

The programme builds on the results of an ongoing baseline survey programme that has been undertaken since 2001 looking at commercial ports and marinas nationwide, producing a snapshot of what’s there, and providing a benchmark to measure the effectiveness of border control and other management practices.

MAFBNZ’s senior marine advisor in the surveillance area, Brendan Gould, said the programme’s key objective is to detect potentially invasive and harmful marine animals and plants early enough to maximise the chance of removing or controlling them. This is done by targeting the search effort toward certain species and their preferred habitats within these ports and marinas.

The NIWA team will use a range of methods to detect the species, from crab and fish traps through to diver surveys and shore surveys.

MAFBNZ said while targeting surveillance at high risk locations will increase the chance of early detection, it does not guarantee detection and is only a small component of an effective surveillance system.

This article was sourced from the The Northern Advocate.

Filed under: Ali Perkins, News/Current Affairs