A strategy that will allow vehicles on car carriers stuck at sea due to stink bugs to land appears to be getting close.
Mitsui OSK Lines has told customers their ships will be fogged at sea, before coming to Auckland to unload – though how long this will take depends on approval and conditions at sea, which are being complicated by Cyclone Gita.
Meanwhile, AutoTalk has been told the Tokyo Car could return to Auckland as soon as tomorrow for a reinspection.
The strategy has been confirmed by VIA chief executive David Vinsen, who is expecting to announce the plan to the industry in an update shortly.
“The Ministry of Primary Industries are pulling out all the stops, and a huge effort is being put in on the science and administration side,” Vinsen says.
“They have come up with a procedure which will allow the vehicles to be unloaded in New Zealand. It is not perfect, but it is progress.”
The system will see the vehicles fumigated at sea, before the ship lands. It will then be sample unloaded, with 20% of each deck checked for live bugs. Heat treatment will also be used.
Should the results be positive, ships could then be unloaded in full.
Sulfuryl fluoride permission declined
Complicating the situation is that one possible agent for killing the bugs – sulfuryl fluoride – is not approved for use in New Zealand. An application for emergency permission to use the agent has been declined.
Vinsen says he is working with Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford on a joint submission to the minister for its approval.
Crawford says the industry does not agree with the reason behind its use being declined.
“We understand the reason for declining the use of Sulfuryl Fluoride is that under the Act, emergency use is restricted to treatment of pest already in NZ,” Crawford explains.
“We understand biosecurity legal advisers consider the pest on cars on ships are not yet pests in New Zealand,” he says.
“Industry does not agree with this interpretation as the territorial sea is every bit a part of New Zealand, with the same legal status as our dry land.
“If the pest is found on ships at ports, it is by default in New Zealand.”
