Welcome to the second edition of Asia-Pacific Update, our newsletter focusing on NIWA's international work in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Australia. In this edition we focus on some of our recent aquatic biodiversity and biosecurity work in the region.
Invasive aquatic weeds are a problem in other countries as well as New Zealand. NIWA scientists were recently in Micronesia, assessing the risks posed by invasive aquatic weeds to some of the main islands there.
In 1997, the Australian and New Zealand Environmental Conservation Council (ANZECC) developed a Code of Practice for Antifouling and In-Water Hull Cleaning. NIWA and a Tasmanian partner are about to begin work on the important job of updating this code.
NIWA is part of an international team studying biodiversity in the unique marine lakes of Palau and Indonesia. Our role includes the identification of the sponges: the dominant life-form in the lakes studied.
NIWA biosecurity scientist Dr Graeme Inglis has recently been in Vanuatu, where he joined a team whose task ultimately is to upgrade Star Wharf, Port Vila’s cargo wharf.
