Bluff!
Who'd have thought?
"Underwater", research diver Pete Notman said, "Bluff was the prettiest harbour in the country, with sea sponges growing in banks of yellow, red, orange, purple, blue and green around the wharf and the water teemed with life." (Southland Times 15 Feb)
Of course all that beauty is under threat. Foreign organisms are arriving and any one of them could destroy the resident creatures in a very short time. It's the story of Aotearoa. We've seen the results of terrestrial invaders like possums, it's just that the marine invaders are harder to see. The team of NIWA specialists working under the water in the Bluff harbour are looking for crabs, shrimps and clams that would devastate the local populations, if they set up colonies here, and some of them already have. We've got the Japanese skeleton shrimp, thank you very much, and fear the European shore crab, the Chinese mitten crab, the Asian clam and the North Pacific sea star. At risk are the 'famous' oyster beds of the Foveaux Strait, the paua, toheroa and mussels of the area. These invaders are a huge problem for New Zealand and incredibly difficult to contain. Already, the Japanese seaweed undaria which smothers whole environments, is well established in Bluff harbour and is appearing well outside of it. The Chatham Islands are in the process of being encircled by the weed and the results of that will not be good. Any suggestions at to how to repel these aggressive organisms gratefully received.
We'd like to keep Bluff Harbour pretty for a lot longer yet!
perhaps RG you should be pointing out this "subsidy" on imports to Fredinthegrass and paranormal. The importer benefits while the taxpayer and the exporter pays for having to meet the regulatory and environmental cost of these invasive organisms.
ReplyDeletethe benefits of free trade and the lowest price service!
I trust they'll pick up on your suggestion, darkhorse. That 'environmental cost' is fiscal certainly, but ask iwi how they would describe the effects of invaders like those that destroy their wahi kaimoana and you'll get a different (immediate and unequivocal) answer.
ReplyDeleteagree RG - does not do much for the marine environment from the perspective of my viking heritage either.
ReplyDeleteBut it needs to be put in the simplistic language/symbology of F.I.G and P/normal for them to perhaps garner even a glimmer of understanding of the hypocrisy and short-sightedness of their world view
It is odd that the invasive stuff is never useful or beautiful like mermaids and doesn't even make a good feed
ReplyDeleteI've been eating the Wakame made from the undaria from Bluff Harbour, darkhorse.
ReplyDeleteVery nice too!
NZ is one of the few countries that does not enforce ships ballast water treatment rules around its coast.
ReplyDeleteMeasures such as monitoring of ships ballast water, steam cleaning of arriving containers and other border protection controls against pests has been abandoned in the interests of cost cutting.
This is already coming backe to bite us.
That bite will be a very serious one, KjT. The threat to Fiordland alone is extreme.
ReplyDelete