NETS visitors impressed with plastic wrap technique
The Taire neatly wrapped in plastic during
the demonstration at Port Nicholson
marina. Photo: Mike Harre.
No, Wellington Harbour wasn't the scene of MAF Biosecurity New Zealand's (MAFBNZ's) latest marine incursion response, but a demonstration of the latest marine pest control techniques.
The demonstration, part of the Biosecurity Institute National Education and Training Seminar (NETS) conference held in July, involved a dive team wrapping wharf structures and a 15-metre vessel in plastic sheeting. The wrapping, or encapsulation technique, has been refined through a number of MAFBNZ-partnered applied research activities. It has been successfully applied as a means of controlling a pest sea squirt Didemnum vexillum in the Marlborough Sounds and Nelson (see Biosecurity 76:6), and is currently being used in Bluff Harbour as part of biosecurity efforts to keep marine pests out of Fiordland.
The method works by starving pest organisms on the wrapped structures of oxygen and light.
The annual NETS conference is traditionally the domain of biosecurity practitioners working on land-based biosecurity. The demonstration provided a unique opportunity for delegates to gain first-hand experience of how pests can be controlled in the sea. Delegates were impressed by how easily and quickly the structures and vessel were wrapped.
Bruce Lines from Diving Services NZ Ltd and John Willmer from MAFBNZ were on hand to provide an overview and answer any questions on the technique.
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Page last updated: 30 April 2008