- Hon Andrew Hoggard
Efforts to contain and remove exotic caulerpa seaweed have received a $10 million funding injection to drive the ongoing development of new tools and techniques, says Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard.
"This is new investment on top of the $5 million boost earlier this year for an urgent work programme to rapidly develop technology to locate exotic caulerpa and get rid of it where possible.
"We acknowledge it is a challenge because exotic caulerpa spreads easily, and no other country has been able to adequately control or eradicate it at the scale it is here.
"However, we know affected communities want to continue the battle against this challenging problem and there have been some promising technology developments that we would like to push further.
"This additional $10 million will keep the momentum going in improving the technology and tools that we have identified and will also be used to help slow the spread of caulerpa."
Mr Hoggard says the new work programme will build on what has been learned from the first phase of work, which showed that removing exotic caulerpa is achievable, but it is not easy.
"The $3.3 million large-scale mechanical suction dredging project in Omakiwi Cove in Northland made some significant advances but found that achieving fast and cost-effective removal is still challenging and further research and development is required.
"One of the other projects, developing new surveillance and removal technologies, saw the successful development of cameras mounted on towed and remote-operated vehicles to find exotic caulerpa and identify it as caulerpa in real time using artificial intelligence.
"We are also aware of other promising technology developments that have been self-initiated by iwi, communities, scientists and others.
"All this effort needs to be built on and, while we have a seriously difficult problem with exotic caulerpa, there is some cause for optimism," Mr Hoggard says.
The additional funding will focus on technology development and trials to test these new tools. These trials will be for removal at some high value and/or high-risk locations.
"There will be continued effort in campaigns to educate people on how they can avoid spreading caulerpa; support for community coordination; research to further understand the impacts of the pest; and targeted surveillance using tools developed in the first phase of our work.
"This is particularly important as the sooner we can find new, small patches, the greater the chance of successful removal."
Mr Hoggard says one of the outcomes of the last six months effort has been the major contribution that iwi and community efforts have made.
"Communities in affected areas are deeply concerned about the impacts of exotic caulerpa and this is reflected in their efforts. This government is committed to doing everything practically possible to address this problem."
An Exotic Caulerpa National Advisory Group has been formed recently and Biosecurity New Zealand officials will work with this group to help prioritise use of the funding allocation, as well as working on the options to consider for ongoing management of caulerpa in New Zealand.
