Concerns of Undaria spread have caused calls for DOC Funding

Friday, 31 July 2020

Undaria (recognised by its yellow 'spine') smothers a reef of light. Environment Southland are hoping to secure Jobs for Nature funding to prevent further spread of Undaria in Fiordland.

Concerns about the spread of a nasty brown seaweed into Dusky Sound and Wet Jacket have led Environment Southland to call for funding help.

Environment Southland in partnership with Fiordland Marine Guardians has requested $7.3 million from the Department of Conservations Jobs for Nature fund to help improve their efforts in containing Undaria in Breaksea Sound and its elimination efforts at Chalky Inlet.

Undaria often described as the gorse of the sea is an invasive seaweed, initially found in Fiordland at Sunday Cove in 2010 and spread into Breaksea Sound.

Last year Environment Southland developed two containment zones for Breaksea Sound and Stewart Island to reduce the spread of the Undaria.

Environment Southland marine programme leader Robert Win said in April they had found Undaria outside the containment area in Breaksea Sound, suspected to come from cray pots.

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Although there was a 90 per cent chance that the Undaria wouldn’t be able to grow in open sea, it could likely travel along the Acheron Passage into Dusky Sound and Moana Uta/Wet Jacket, Win said.

A map by Environment Southland showing the containment zones of Undaria and where a craypot containing Undaria was found near Breaksea Island in April.

Considering Wet Jacket was highly recognised marine reserve it would be devastating if Undaria reached there, he said.

Environment Southland recently lost a revenue stream for its Fiordland Undaria programme through cruise ship levy’s that had been halted due Covid-19 restrictions.

With its current funding, Undaria work was limited to mostly elimination in Chalky Inlet and basic surveillance of Breaksea Sound, Win said.

The additional funding would increase surveillance and monitoring, the removal of biomass in the area and develop tools that would hopefully lead to a focus on elimination in Breaksea Sound.

Win estimated it could create 40 jobs while helping to protect fishing operations in the area, he said.

Fiordland Marine Guardians chairwoman Dr Rebecca McCleod said the regional council had been limited to focusing on creating a buffer zone but it had became apparent it was not working.

The drying of cruise ship levy funding further put Fiordland’s marine ecosystem in jeopardy as the Environment Southland had limited resources to contain the spread, McCleod said.

The regional council had a large water area to control with a small rate payer base to fund it, she said.

Unfortunately Undaria had no respect to the time restraints of applications and could start spreading in spring, she said.

Oraka-Aparima chairman Stewart Bull said preserving the Fiordland marine ecosystem was important kaitiaki but because it was underwater it was hard for people to understand the importance of stopping Undaria.

On Tuesday night a meeting was held in Te Anau to develop applications for DOC jobs for nature.

The alliance headed DOC Te Anau includes Southland District Council, Environment Southland, Oraka-Aparima, Great South, Southland Conservation Board, Fiordland Marine Guardians and Destination Fiordland.

DOC job for nature has allocated $200 million for funding through regional alliances.

DOC Te Anau operations manager Nedra Burns said they did not know yet what the application process for the Jobs for Nature fund would look like.

However, given the urgency with Fiordland expected to reach a third of its population unemployed once the wage subsidy ends, it was important to have an application ready for when they did know more, Burns said.

Department of Conservation Southern South Island operations manager Aaron Fleming said they would not be commenting on individual applications but would be making announcement as funding was approved.

There was a huge demand for the Jobs for Nature with applications far exceeding the funding available, Fleming said.

It was still early days for regional alliance funding as the work stream was for three years and only became available on July 1, he said.

DOC was designing the process for applications with its treaty partners and stakeholders to ensure they had a robust planning and delivery process, he said.