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Mā te takitahi
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Cleaning your boat during a trip
When you're on a trip, it's important not to take any nasty hitchhikers along.
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1. Check before you move
When you're on a trip – a day trip or longer journey – before you move on, get into the habit of checking your gear and your anchor whenever you pull it up.
This is most important for gear that has been around the seabed. For example, anchoring or dredging, because that’s where some of the invasive species (like exotic caulerpa) live.
In places where there are special rules (for example, for exotic caulerpa and bonamia) you will need to bag and bin material to go to landfill.
2. Check and remove anything that has been pulled up
You will mainly get weeds and mud.
Be sure to check:
- anchor, chains, and ropes
- fishing gear such as crab or lobster pots and nets.
Clean the anchor just below the surface before it comes onboard. Or, if you see it still has debris attached when it’s on the deck, slosh it with buckets of water.
3. Avoid visiting infested places and check the rules
Avoiding places where there’s a known infestation of an invasive marine species helps reduce risk of snagging and moving anything back to your favourite place.
If you really must go, always check the rules beforehand.
4. At the end of your trip, clean your trailer boat, kayak or jetski
At the end of your trip, so you're ready for next time:
- Drain any water from your trailer boat on land (including bilge water, fish, or bait holding tanks).
- Inspect your boat for anything tangled in ropes or other gear, and put it in a bin that goes to landfill.
- Rinse everything with freshwater and allow it to dry before using it in a new location (make sure the water drains to land, not the sea).
Manage on-board seawater
There are several ways seawater comes into your boat, and with that comes the risk of unknowingly transporting invasive marine pests.
You may not be able to see them – for example, larvae of many invasive marine species will be in the water after a spawning.
The types of on-board water can include:
- salt-water engine cooling
- ballast water
- live bait tanks
- sea crests
- bilge water
- anchor wells.
What to do
- Treat all on-board systems between trips by flushing them with freshwater or an approved treatment.
- Pump out and mop bilges before you move to another marine area.
- As much as possible, discharge seawater into the same marine area it came from while you are on a trip. Failing that, discharge it on land that does not drain to the sea.
Video: Protect our paradise (0.15)
Transcript - show/hide
[Boatie walks down to a boat. Boatie sits and speaks]
Boatie: "So we’ve been boaties since we were kids. It runs in our family really.”
[Boatie holds up a net and pulls down steps.]
“Being out on the water is our paradise.”
[Boatie sitting on boat.]
“If we lost that, I’d be absolutely gutted.”
[Boatie puts a rod into a rod-holder, closes a hatch and looks out to sea.]
Voiceover: Stop marine pests from spreading and ruining what you love. Keep your hull, gear and anchor clean.
[Protect Our Paradise logo appears.]
[End transcript]
