What you don’t see - the mahi to make the invisible count
In recent years marine biosecurity has climbed higher up the list for policy makers, environmentalists, and the marine industry. Today there are education programmes and surveillance and compliance frameworks supported by various legislation designed to protect our coasts from non-indigenous species, particularly those that are highly invasive.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council dive team in action
But it hasn’t always been that way. It took the arrival of Mediterranean fanworm (Sabella spallanzanii) on the scene to bring six councils and agencies in the upper North Island together to form what is now a highly regarded collaboration representing the home bases of 70% of New Zealand’s marine vessel fleet.
Greg Corbett, now Biosecurity Manager at Bay of Plenty Toi Moana Regional Council, started his biosecurity career in the 1980s working on pest control in the agricultural sector and was one of the first, through a role with local government, to develop marine biosecurity as a discipline here.
Greg Corbett (left) receiving the Minister’s Award at 2018 Biosecurity Awards
He explains that a collective initiative in the upper South Island (called the Top of the South Biosecurity Partnership) was getting traction, and that Northland and Bay of Plenty regions were actively working to manage high-risk species, but these were isolated efforts. Then Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour suffered a serious incursion of Mediterranean fanworm and in 2013 it was found to have made its way to Tauranga and Whangarei Harbours.
“It quickly became obvious what would happen if we waited a few years. They already understood that well in the North and the urgency drew councils into thinking about it more seriously. It became clear we needed to work with our neighbouring regions to manage this,” he recalls.
In Tauranga, Greg says it was increasingly obvious that boats were arriving from their travels with marine pest hitchhikers onboard. “We had stood up a marine biosecurity management plan to respond to that, but at that point it was non-statutory.”
The best defence to keep New Zealand’s coastline pest-free is to prevent the spread of invasive species in the first place. Once an invasive species is established in a marine area it is very difficult and costly to remove – if that is possible at all.
John Sanson, Manager, Biosecurity New Zealand’s Pest Management Group
Ultimately these incursions became the catalyst for what is now the Top of the North Marine Biosecurity Partnership - a collaborative effort between Northland Regional Council, Auckland Council, Waikato Regional Council, and Bay of Plenty Toi Moana Regional Council. Gisborne District Council and Hawke's Bay Regional Council came onboard soon after and the Ministry for Primary Industries has since been joined by the Department of Conservation.
The collaboration is a counterpart to the Top of the South Marine Biosecurity Partnership and the Fiordland Guardians. With New Zealand at the forefront of marine biosecurity globally, those involved in all three efforts have had to build their expertise and skills relatively quickly.
Greg explains that while his own expertise was in terrestrial biosecurity, he was fortunate to have a colleague, Hamish Lass, who had studied marine science and had good practical skills in surveillance and incursion responses thanks to his work in freshwater biosecurity. Today the pair continue to work together, with a regional team to support their work programme including contracted specialist divers, who also deliver dive surveillance work across some of the neighbouring regions too.
“That put us on a strong footing to be able to respond to those initial incursions of both fanworm and Styela clava – an invasive species of sea squirt.”
The time was right, and the councils engaged strongly, collaborating on a wide range of approaches including surveillance and monitoring and eradication when necessary. There is also a programme of advocacy and awareness raising, including the development of a shared brand, ‘Clean Below? Good to Go’ to promote the marine biosecurity message to boat owners with a shared online resource for boaties, marinepests.nz, at its hub.
“The secret to progress was around information sharing, getting intelligence on vessels, and techniques to manage pests. We knew we couldn’t do nothing, and we had to build an understanding at operational level.”
Over time the councils involved have also progressed policy. Initially this came from the individual regions, in the form of Pathway Management Plans, a tool enabled by an amendment to the Biosecurity Act in 2012. To date, there are only three operational regional Pathway Management Plans being in Fiordland, Northland and Auckland that are marine-based. For some time the creation of a shared approach, called the Clean Hull Plan (formerly Inter-Regional Marine Pest Pathway Management Plan) has developed by the four northernmost regions to make rules simpler and easier to enforce, replacing myriad rules with one single consistent standard across the regions that account for around 90% of marine pest movement in New Zealand. This is now being developed as a proposal for a national pathway management plan covering the four upper north island regions.
At the same time as these regional groups are collaborating, a national approach to marine biosecurity will be developed, led by Biosecurity New Zealand (a business unit of MPI). John Sanson from Biosecurity New Zealand’s Pest Management Group explains that the strategy will establish a shared vision for everyone involved in domestic marine biosecurity and outline the actions required to improve the marine biosecurity system. “The strategy will provide a guiding framework and roadmap for future collaboration and collective action”.
And three key players - Auckland Council, Marlborough District Council and Northland Regional Council are partners in, and case study regions for, the Marine Biosecurity Toolbox which is an MBIE-funded 5-year collaborative research programme whose mission is the development of science-based tools and technologies that empower governments, tangata whenua, industry and the public to effectively mitigate biosecurity risks.
So far the wins tend to be things you can’t see. One of the worst pests, the Northern Pacific Seastar, is not established here. Mediterranean fanworm has not ballooned out of control in Tauranga or the Bay of Islands. It has been eliminated from Tutukaka, where it was first found in 2015. And a number of marine pest incursions have been stopped in their tracks. And, thanks in no small part to extensive engagement work by Auckland Council and others, boat owners are becoming more knowledgeable and willing to do their bit.
Auckland Council and Biosecurity New Zealand are also running a joint response to a Mediterranean fanworm incursion at Aotea Great Barrier Island. This work programme focuses on checking for the presence of the fanworm, and removing any found.
Auckland Council’s work has a pathway management approach and policy to support that. They have also been delivering a best practice work programme that combines engagement and behaviour change with other essential components including surveillance and monitoring, and research, development and innovation.
But like with Covid-19, it can be difficult to get widespread credit for the absence of something. Education and surveillance remains a high priority, as does building the body of science and knowledge that informs decision making and provides tools for those at the coalface to work with.
Greg says that marine pests will continue to feature so long as boats are moving. “We have had some surprises such as where someone has done some in-hull cleaning in part of the harbour and as a result part of the floor is covered in fanworm. But we have mopped them up with no ongoing ballooning of population. We have kept it very suppressed. It has taken a lot of work but it shows what is possible with very rudimentary tools.”
“We won’t eradicate something like fanworm, but our efforts now might buy us 10 or 20 years to maintain the pressure for science to catch up. That gives us hope.”