My Account
If boaties come across the invasive marine weed caulerpa, they are being told to take it home and put it in the bin.
That’s the new messaging from Biosecurity New Zealand, which had previously told people to leave the caulerpa where they found it.
At a Hauraki Gulf Forum on September 11, Biosecurity New Zealand director John Walsh gave an update on the caulerpa infestations in the Hauraki Gulf.
“The infestation on Waiheke Island covers roughly 400 hectares – it is a large but very sparsely populated infestation, so quite different from the other large infestations we have,” Walsh said.
He said large scale suction dredging was planned for Great Barrier Island/Aotea shortly and a suction dredging trial was planned for Waiheke.
Hand pulling of caulerpa was happening at Kawau Island, but Walsh said the method had proved slow and would need to be re-evaluated.
Forum co-chair Nicola MacDonald was concerned about what sort of public education, awareness and communications campaigns would be coming out ahead of summer, when more people would be in and around the gulf.
“People can still enjoy the gulf, but we want them to be really aware of what to do if they bring caulerpa up on their fishing lines or their anchors, or even if they spot it while they are out and about,” she said.
Walsh acknowledged the controversy caused by Biosecurity New Zealand’s previous messaging to leave caulerpa where it was.
Forum member James Sainsbury asked where the caulerpa went after it was taken out of the water.
Walsh said caulerpa from Kawau Island was going to a landfill while the caulerpa at Aotea Island would go to a safe site on the island
“It dies pretty quickly once you get it out of the water so we are just making sure that it is transported in a biosecure way and that it is taken to a biosecure location,” Walsh said.
The forum formally requested Biosecurity New Zealand to invest in a common geographical information system to ensure comprehensive, publicly available data to show the full extent of caulerpa.
