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waterfront business in brief… New frontline border staff 12 new frontline border staff will help ensure New Zealand's biosecurity defences stay strong, says the Ministry for Primary Industries. The new staff received their quarantine inspector warrants at a ceremony in Christchurch. The graduation follows the warranting of 43 new inspectors in December 2012 and a recent announcement by Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy that MPI will recruit 30 new quarantine inspectors this year. "The new inspectors and upcoming recruitment programme will ensure that the biosecurity frontline remains fully staffed and isn't affected by normal resignations and retirement," says Steve Gilbert, MPI Director, Border Clearance Services. "Biosecurity is vitally important to New Zealand and its primary industries." The warranting ceremony follows more than three months of intensive training for the new recruits. The warrants will allow them to exercise a range of powers under the Biosecurity Act 1993 to check passengers and goods for biosecurity risk items. Two of the new inspectors will be based in Wellington, one in Queenstown and remainder in Christchurch. Two of the 12 will undergo further training as detector dog handlers. Water taxi crash in the Waitemata On May 24 in the Waitemata Harbour Bill Anderson's eight metre long fibreglass Auckland Water Taxi hit the starboard side of the West Harbour ferry, the 14-metre long Serenity with 46 people aboard. Anderson was the only person to be injured in the crash and was taken to hospital with broken bones in his face. Anderson, 66, says he was leaving the Viaduct Harbour in bright calm conditions and heading out to sea along Princes Wharf as the Serenity was arriving to dock at the ferry terminal. "He [was] coming from the wrong side, he was the give way vessel, according to collision regulations," Anderson said. "I just got a sun strike right at that point he came across my bow." The bow of the Auckland Water Taxi went through the Serenity leaving a large triangular hole. 48 Professional Skipper July/August 2013 Forest & Bird and NZ seafood industry welcome plan of action THE NEW ZEALAND seafood industry Forest & Bird welcome the new National Plan of Action – Seabirds. An estimated 15,000 seabirds die annually from coming into contact with commercial fishing operations inside New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone alone. Six species in a new risk assessment are considered to be at "very high risk" from fishing activity, including the flesh-footed shearwater and the black petrel. "This species only breeds on Great Barrier and Little Barrier islands, and is at risk from commercial and recreational fishers, particularly in the Hauraki Gulf," says Forest & Bird's seabird advocate, Karen Baird. Tim Pankhurst, chief executive of Seafood New Zealand says that the seafood industry is continually looking at ways of reducing seabird interactions and that the National Plan builds on progress made since New Zealand's first NPOA – Seabirds in 2004. BlackPetrel. By Terry Greene Forest & Bird believes it should be standard practice for bottom longliners to use weighted lines. Technology such as weighted lines and tori lines where streamers scare birds away from the warp line of a trawl are effective at reducing seabird capture. The National Plan of Action will ensure these devices continue to be an essential part of fishing operations, including training crews on their use and incorporating information into each vessel's Fish Plans on how to deploy these devices and monitor their effectiveness. Seafood New Zealand will be part of the Seabird Advisory Group that will roll out and monitor the plan. Australian rock lobster breakthrough THE WESTERN ROCK lobster, one of Australia's most valuable single-species fishery has been given a helping hand by researchers from the University of Western Australia's School of Environmental Systems Engineering. An international collaboration between UWA, Murdoch University, the University of Auckland and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the funding for the research was provided by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. The project has involved the capture of hundreds of transparent 10-legged organisms up to 2cm long – these phyllosoma are the first larval stage of the western rock lobster. Professor Anya Waite of UWA says that said the study was due to be completed by mid-year and that they researchers already had a better understanding of the feeding process of western rock lobster phyllosoma. "By identifying key prey we've opened up new research potential in fisheries and aquaculture. We've assessed productivity of the Leeuwin Current and evaluated the capacity of plankton to provide a food source for phyllosoma. And we've also identified an oceanographic feature – the Abrolhos front – which appears to bring together two contrasting water masses, providing a shoreward flow pattern favourable to successful development to the puerulus stage." Waite said that underwater video technique had been used to map three dimensional aspects of phyllosoma behaviour in real time, providing a clearer picture of the relationship between phyllosoma and their prey field. www.skipper.co.nz