Combined effort needed to keep marine pests out of marine reserves

Tuesday, 31 October 2017

A Northland boat was recently found with dozens of mature Mediterranean fanworm on its hull.

The broad expanse of blue water off Leigh becomes a coastal highway in summer.

Craft scooting between Auckland and the Bay of Islands, commercial fishing boats heading out into the Hauraki Gulf and beyond, and ships making their way to and from the Ports of Auckland.

The marine pest Eudistoma elongatum has been found in a Waiheke Island bay, Sandspit and Mahurangi Harbour.

But the boat and ship traffic may be putting Goat Island and Tawharanui marine reserves at risk as marine pests cling to boat hulls.

Sea squirts Eudistoma elongartum, Mediterranean fanworms, and brown kelp Undaria all have the potential to infest our marine reserves and have been slowly spreading - often given a free ride by skippers plying the coast.

'Pests don't recognise regional boundaries,' Auckland Council Marine Biosecurity Advisor Samantha Happy said.

**READ MORE:

Despite huge efforts by divers to control the pest, undaria has now established in Fiordland.

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* Marine pest found in Waiheke Island bay

* Plan launched to keep marine pests out of Fiordland waterways**

Marine reserves like Goat Island and the Poor Knights Islands off Whangarei are not just important marine ecosystems, they are also big money spinners for local economies.

So far they are pest free, and there are combined efforts to keep it this way.

When fanworms turned up in Tutukaka, Northland Regional Council put in a big effort to eradicate them, so boats wouldn't carry them to the Poor Knights, Northland Regional Council Biosecurity Senior Programme Manager Don McKenzie said.

Auckland Council, Northland Regional Council and other councils all along the North Island's east coast, along with the Department of Conservation and Ministry of Primary Industries have been working together to encourage boaties to clean their hulls for the last year, Happy said.

It's much easier and cheaper to nip the pests in the bud. When established, it may be impossible.

Undaris kelp has now established in Fiordland despite six years of DOC, MPI, Ministry for the Environment and Environment Southland fighting to get rid of it, Technical Advisor with DOC Kath Blakemore said.

They won the battle on the spot they were aiming at only to find they had lost the war as it had become well established in a different part of the fiord, she said.

The time and money to tackle these pests can be too great for one organisation alone, so joining forces is needed, Happy said.

She is pleased councils are taking the problem seriously.

While it may not be possible to eradicate Eudestoma elongartum, Mediterranean fanworms and undaria completely, it is important to keep them under control and out of our marine reserves.