Working together to stop the spread of marine pests
Clean Below? Good to Go is an education campaign designed to help raise awareness of the role biofouling plays in the spread of marine pests.
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.
Our work focuses on minimising the risk of marine pests being spread by:
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