Marine Bio Security: Invasive pests on Ships' Hull

[Lynda Bradford]

The BBC web page has an article about the Viking Ship Orion being denied entry to Australian waters because of marine growth on the hull of the ship. New Zealand had also denied entry to ports, resulting in passengers being on the ship for an extended period of time and missing Port visits. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-64138743

Questions: 

1:  Is it only Australia and New Zealand who are strict about denying ships with marine growth entry to their waters?  Or is there an international standard on the amount of marine growth on the ship?

2:  Who is responsible for checking for marine growth on a ship ?

We have a topic about new underwater coating on QM2, which is also of interest, but then this raises another question.  If this was a successful option on the QM2 why would the Viking ships not use the same or similar product?

https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php?topic=447.msg5141#msg5141

[Lynda Bradford]

Today I read on a Facebook page of other ship's including Cunard's Queen Elizabeth being prevented from entering New Zealand Fjords because of ships hulls did not meet the required.standards.

I decided to do a bit of research into the subject of Marine Bio security and found a couple of interesting pdf documents.  One was a 2015 report Monitoring for Marine Pests: A review of the design and use of Australia's national monitoring strategy and identification of possible improvements Tony Arthur, Lucy Arrowsmith, Sandra Parsons and Rupert Summerson

The second documents that I am currently reading is National Marine Pest Surveillance Strategy Version 1.0 2019

Interesting to read that regarding recommendation in the 2015 Marine Pests report "Only five of the eighteen agreed priority locations were monitored to the national surveillance standard resulting in the goals of this program not being achieved."

As marine bio security is not new, ship's crew would have been aware of procedures in place to protect the marine environment. The 2015 report mentions Ballast Water regulations to limit the spread of invasive species.  This is something as a cruise passengers, I had never thought about, but it has been part of procedures.  The Fremantle Port page mentions Australian Ballast Water Management Requirements. 

It would be good to hear from members who can add to this topic. 

[Chris Thompson]

All of the Boat Ramps on Lake Greenwood here have big signs reminding boaters to clean their hulls especially if using other bodies of water. There have been issues with invasive plants and insects hitching rides on a dirty boat!