About this program

Marine biosecurity in our regions

The upper North Island, including Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay regions is home to more than 70% of New Zealand’s domestic maritime vessels. This includes around 20,000 recreational boats and 1,300 commercial boats that sit in the water majority of the time (moored or berthed). With a coastline of accessible bays and good anchorages and coastal towns, the regions are tightly interconnected, with sea travel easy and frequent. This area also contains an estimated 167 of the 214 marine Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) recorded as established in New Zealand, many of which currently have regionally or locally restricted distributions. Fortunately, only a few of these species are considered to have the potential to cause harm to our marine environment.