Marine pest survey in Wellington Harbour
Scientists from NIWA and the Ministry for Primary industries undertook a third Port Biological Baseline Survey (PBBS) in the Port of Wellington in July and August, 2016. The surveys assess native and non-native biodiversity within shipping ports with the purpose of measuring long-term changes in the diversity of non-native species. Two earlier surveys of the Port of Wellington were completed in 2001 and 2005. You can find out more about these surveys in the link below.
More than 300 individual samples were collected using crab traps, fish traps, shrimp traps, starfish traps, benthic grabs, benthic sleds, pile scrapes, photo stills and video, and cores. Biological specimens were sent to the Marine Invasives Taxonomic Service (MITS) for identification.