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Marinepests.nz - reference for marina requirements & council rules


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Hi Crew.org.nz, 

 

Sharing this info which may be of interest to you. Councils in Northland, Waikato (Coromandel), BOP and Auckland want to make sure that you are aware of their rules, and also of the requirements of marinas that you are visiting, so you can get ready before the summer. 

 

They all have slightly different requirements so it's important that you check ahead. 

 

Zoe 

 

 

Councils and marinas continue to combat spread of marine pests

 

Turning up with a clean hull is the best guarantee of a warm welcome for boaties planning to cruise to other regions this summer, as regional councils and marinas continue to combat the spread of marine pests such as Mediterranean fanworm.

 

And now there’s a new easy way for boaties to check out the council rules and marina requirements in place at their chosen destination, with the launch of a new website: www.marinepests.nz

 

In Northland, Waikato (which includes the Coromandel) and the Bay of Plenty, regional councils are stepping up their summer surveillance programmes, which are already underway. 

 

Any vessels found to be carrying Mediterranean fanworm may be required to be cleaned at the owners’ expense. In Northland, the owners may also be subject to a $500 fine.

 

Meanwhile, marinas in the three regions are continuing to require proof of either new antifoul within the previous six months, or a lift and wash within one month of leaving an infected area, before allowing vessels to berth. Haulout/antifoul receipts are the easiest form of evidence to provide.

 

Although a lift and wash prior to moving to a new area is generally sufficient to comply, boat owners are encouraged to double-check hard-to-reach ‘niche’ areas where marine pests may remain (the base of the keel, bow thrusters, intakes/outlets, prop and rudder areas) before their vessel is returned to the water.

 

  • Northland Regional Council has also been developing a new Marine Pathways Management Plan and is looking at rules that would limit the amount of biofouling permitted on hulls.

 

The new pathways plan is scheduled to be made available for public consultation in February 2017.

 
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Auckland? chances are that is where a Hull has likely been affected in the first place.
And the other comment of limiting the amount of biofouling? :roll:

OK, so if the authorities want clean boats, two things need to happen. Area's should be the concern, not just a Marina. And with that, the means of lifting and cleaning needs to be cheap. Most especially when in my area, the Port Authority also operate the Lift and profit from it.

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ALL the Auckland marinas are sources of the fanworm now. I see little to no chance of it being removed.

I keep Island Time Clean myself - Antifoul every year, and get in the water and remove slime regularly before anything can grow. Extra lifts are expensive. Evidence of cleaning is only in the ships log - which is a legal document... plus any inspection will find nothing.

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ALL the Auckland marinas are sources of the fanworm now. I see little to no chance of it being removed.

I keep Island Time Clean myself - Antifoul every year, and get in the water and remove slime regularly before anything can grow. Extra lifts are expensive. Evidence of cleaning is only in the ships log - which is a legal document... plus any inspection will find nothing.

IT, that has been my approach here in Parua Bay/Whangarei also.  I thought I was doing my bit and I wouldn't be part of the spread.  So imagine my surprise to get the following email last week...

 

Kia ora

 
During a recent dive survey a few juvenile fanworm were found on the hull of your vessel ‘’ on the above mooring.
 
We have scheduled it for a further inspection in a few months’ time, however if you were planning on leaving the area, it would be advisable to have your vessel lifted and cleaned prior to any journey.
 
A ‘Notice of Direction’ will be issued shortly which will detail what action you will need to take to ensure fanworm is not transported from your vessel.
 
If you require further information, please contact either myself or email marinebiosecurity@nrc.govt.nz.
 
Thank you.
 
When I enquired I found out that this was a form letter and that an inspection dive had found one 20mm juvenile on the prop hub (One juvenile is not really a 'few' and has a huge difference in the impression the letter leads to).  This was 24 days after I had last dived her and wiped off the slime layer (Sea-Barier 4000 applied Nov 2015).  Obviously the hub is the hardest place to clean with a piece of carpet so the location at least makes some sense.  All that said there is no photo just a note in the divers log.  If there are going to be fines and forced cleaning,  in the future, I would hope that some more irrefutable proof will be provided. 
 
My biggest take-home from this experience is that it raises real questions about any of us being able to meet these standards with the antifouling we have to use /is available to buy. As Wheels points out the local businesses will be the ones making out like bandits. Realistically if many owners are forced to haul and power-wash clean (and if they used an ablative like #5 they will need to repaint as well) several times a year then all it will do is encourage people to consider how far the boundaries/rules can be pushed.  Fan worm is a pest. I don't hear anyone arguing with that -I would argue that MPI has some culpability here as it apparently released the source vessel with contamination then plead innocence and  no responsibility when ARC made them aware. But people need to be given the tools to deal with it rather than being forced to use external service providers that simply push the fiscal and time cost of responsible boat ownership out of the reach of many.
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When my Boat got hauled, I talked in depth with the Biosecurity guy. I said, but surely this critter is so aggressive, then you are not going to keep it out now it is established. It's going to migrate with the currents. I said can you imagine this pest flowing out of Auckland harbour with the tide and settling along the Coastline. His reply was that yes it will eventually be everywhere. So my thought then is why now bother, It is the inevitable. They should spend more money/effort on stopping pests getting here in the first place, rather than spending a fortune on trying to catch the Horse after it bolted.

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Oh and to add to that. My Boat has sat on the mooring since it got hauled and cleaned. I could not antifoul her then. I can't now. So she is a floating Marine Farm in the making at the mo. I won't be able to haul it to hopefully Christmas, providing there is a space available on the booking sheet for me then. I can imagine that if Authorities get to snarky on this and start demanding Boats to be hauled and cleaned and a fine, they might end up with a big cost in disposing of abandoned boats.

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this whole process runs the risk of getting out of hand very quickly.  Some of the drivel on the respective council websites is quite scary.

 

For example the contradictions on the follow page really does make you wonder what's going to happen.

http://www.nrc.govt.nz/Maritime/Our-marine-environment/Cleaning-your-boat/

 

and then at the bottom of the link Zoe has forwarded it says

'Auckland Council, Bay of Plenty, Northland and Waikato Regional Councils - working together to stop the spread of invasive marine pests"

 

yet on the Auckland link it clearly states "Marine pest invasion in Auckland is inevitable. This is due to the large number of recreational and commercial activities operating in the area, especially around the Ports of Auckland." 

http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/environmentwaste/biosecurity/Pages/marinepests.aspx

 

The only thing this lot are doing is working together to blow more of your cash.  If you take their drivel to its literal conclusion every boat will need to provide proof of being hauled and washed once every month in order to move anywhere - to stop something that is inevitable.

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HI guys

 

I can't start talking about stuff I am not an expert about on here but having seen it from a number of perspectives this is my understanding: 

 

- Remember that Auckland does still have locations  - such as Great Barrier - that need protecting. Please be vigilant. 

 

- If it is indeed too late for Fanworm, there need to be good practices in place for whatever the next pest is that arises as a threat

 

- From what I can tell if you keep your boat clean and keep evidence of lift and wash and antifouling (such as receipts) you are pretty much going to be okay but it pays to check ahead with the council and the marina because they have slightly different requirements.  

 

- Marinas are looking for solutions but this pest is really problematic. You can't just scrape it off and if you do it'll just come back (in force). There are some technologies around that may help - such as ultrasonic stuff - but nothing (I have heard of) that's proven yet. Let's hope for some good news soon on that front. 

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- Remember that Auckland does still have locations  - such as Great Barrier - that need protecting. Please be vigilant.

 

I would be most surprised if it was not already there. Far too many boats going across there from Auckland for there not to be.

 

- From what I can tell if you keep your boat clean and keep evidence of lift and wash and antifouling (such as receipts) you are pretty much going to be okay but it pays to check ahead with the council and the marina because they have slightly different requirements.

But if you antifouled 8months prior, what does that mean Zoe? It says they want proof the boat was antifouled within 6months. And what if you have a 2 or 3 yr antifoul coating? The entire point being to save the cost of a haul once a year. Why are they not considering that.

 

It's a case of, once again, we the public are paying the price for the lack of money and effort that should be put into stopping these pests getting here in the first place. And if Auckland Ports has the attitude that it is inevitable due to the number of Ships they handle, then our Marine environment is screwed anyway. There are no boarders out there in the Sea to this stuff. Apart from Currents and Water temp. So once it is here, it is only a matter of time and stuff will spread, whether our Boats aid that spread or not. 

 

Oh and Zoe, just in case my comments may seem "tense", nothing in any of that is aimed personally at you.

 

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Don't worry Wheels I gave up worrying about anything much like that a while ago! Four kids does that to you.

 

Is it Northland you are talking about?

 

I have aa general understanding of the issues but not of the specifics so I just took a look at the web page.

 

http://www.nrc.govt.nz/visitingboats

 

If I understand it correctly do they need ask for an antifoul in the last six months OR a lift and wash in the last month. So you'd be okay with your 2-3 year antifoul so long as you'd hauled out in the last month - and yes I know hauling out ain't always cheap or always easy to get to. 

 

That's the marinas. The council itself just requires you to be free of marine pests if they inspect you. Other councils are a bit different. 

 

I can't answer for the shipping I know nothing at all about that! 

 

I am not sure if that helps your case or not? 

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Having just has my boat out for antifoul at Pier 21, if you have not already booked for a lift/new antifoul etc you will not be getting out of the water there before Christmas.  I booked and had to wait  8 weeks for a slot!

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It's time to bring back public grids and allow a wipe down. The policy of dismantling them and discouraging their use was always misguided in my opinion.

 

Yes, this is the usual 'govt/ local govt' game. First you bring so much compliance that it becomes impossible to use , then you use the usage statistics to justify its removal all together.

 Same thing  applies to the mast gantry.

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The laughable part of this is that they are effectively creating a situation where almost no one can meet the requirements.

Combined with antifouls becoming less effective, im interested to see the end result?

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The issue that many of us will have is that

a) almost no one antifouls every six months.  A very well maintained boat perhaps once a year but typically 2 years, most will probably try and get out to 3 years.

That means that essentially if you sail regularly from Auckland to either the north or the corromandel you could well be faced with a lift and wash on a monthly basis.  Northland know, understand and recognise the costs associated with this, know recognise and understand that their own harbours have high rates of fouling (http://www.nrc.govt.nz/contentassets/a5bdb1f776fa4261893ece4b4d6d0798/hull-maintenance-survey-summary-for-stakeholders.pdf) and yet they still saw fit to impose this.

 

Not to mention the fact that I'm going to use one of the new fangled foul release paints - won't require a lift and wash as it will be "washed" continuously.  How will this play out on the water - with the "fouling police"?  Not very well I'm going to suggest.

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Yes, this is the usual 'govt/ local govt' game. First you bring so much compliance that it becomes impossible to use , then you use the usage statistics to justify its removal all together.

 Same thing  applies to the mast gantry.

 

I found the process to use the mast gantry fairly straightforward, pm me for details if you want

 

 

The laughable part of this is that they ate effecively creating a situation where almost no one can meet the requirements.

Combined with antifouls becoming less effective, im interested to see the end result?

Hopefully we'll see further advances in new  non fouling antifouls like propspeed for hulls, they are not perfect yet, but they can only get better

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Yes but what really gets up my nose is this weed was brought in by foreign boats , ships every day of the week anchor off rangi , these boats introduce this crap what lives in the hull outlets crawls out and onto the sea floor the councils need to get off there chuff and every ship gets as checked over , no different to what they are enforcing us little boaties to do at our cost once again we pay , just Sh,,t , nobody is out there eradicating this problem daily from any of the authority's , have you seen them , no , gulf harbour has a fast growing weed , nobody is scraping it off collecting it and ridding it , sadly it will take over , the ships must be dived on and cleaned and charge the shipping company not us little boaties

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I thought it was "ballast water" that caused this?  Ships (covered in TBT antifouling but let's not go there...) use ballast water for stability when lightly loaded.  Arriving in Auckland, they pump out the sh*t they have transported from who knows where into the harbour.  Then the local boaties (not allowed to use TBT but I said I wasn't going there) get to deal with the result.

 

There are no requirements for cruise liners to produce certification to show they have antifouled within 6 months of their visit to the BOI, where they will sit outside Russell and pump their bilges, which contain foreign life.  Commercial fishing boats?  

 

The regime presently only covers marina visits.  

 

This whole situation seems to be a sh*t fight.  I like the saying "common sense isn't that common".

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