Fourth stink bug ship ordered to leave
Officials have sent a fourth ship from Japan packing after 600 brown marmorated stink bugs were discovered last week. Twelve of them were living.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said it had ordered the bulk carrier Glovis Caravel, which was loaded with vehicles, to leave New Zealand waters.
Chief executive of the Vehicle Importers Association (VIA) David Vinsen said job losses in the car importing business were likely. ‘‘It’s not ‘potential’, there will be actual job losses I would say. Ten days ago people were being asked to take their unused holiday and leave allowances and last week I understand people were being put on short time. It’s a serious issue.’’
There's nothing more important than the biosecurity of NZ. Chief executive of the Vehicle Importers Association David Vinsen
The discovery follows a report commissioned by Horticulture New Zealand, predicting that if the bug established permanently it could wipe out export earnings of up to $4.2 billion by 2038.
Vinsen said the other ships with stink bugs had been sent to Australia for fumigation because the chemical used, sulphuryl fluoride, was not licensed in New Zealand. However, Australian authorities do not want Australia to become a decontamination way station en route to New Zealand.
‘‘They want to allow it to be used only for goods destined for Australia. They don’t want people coming in to decontaminate their goods and then ship them out again.’’
An MPI spokesman said it was now using a new method of ‘‘fogging’’ ships with the chemical permethrin, a commonly used insecticide. Already one of the ships that had originally been excluded, the Tokyo Car, had been allowed back in and fogged. Following that, 20 per cent of the vehicles were inspected, including by a dog trained to track down the bug. MPI said it had increased its border inspection and verification of bulk carriers arriving from Japan following a recent jump in detections of the stink bug.
‘‘Some of the carriers arriving in New Zealand require no further action, but where there is contamination we have the option of denying entry,’’ MPI border clearance services director Steve Gilbert said.
Vinsen said the sudden increase in numbers of the bug was puzzling. It was possible there was a spike in northern hemisphere numbers because of either a boost in the plants they feed on, or because of climate warming. In New Zealand a number of plants experience ‘‘mast years’’, when they produce copious quantities of flowers and seed.
‘‘As far as we’re concerned there’s nothing more important than the biosecurity of New Zealand so we’re not trying to cut corners.
‘‘We would much prefer all this biosecurity risk to be transferred overseas so the vehicles are treated and inspected before they arrive,’’ Vinsen said.