Is this the end of the mussels?

A Far North conservationist fears the days of recreationally harvesting mussels in the Far North may almost be over thanks to a invasion of the Australian sea squirt Pyura Stolonifera. Worse, Laurie Austen has grave fears for the future of the $400 million mussel industry, which, to a great extent, relies upon wild spat collected on the west coast.

Eighty per cent of the industry was seeded from spat collected on 90 Mile Beach.

Mr Austen, who serves Ahipara Komiti Takutaimoana as a research observer, said he had no doubt that Far North mussel beds were in real peril - the sea squirt was now well-established from Twilight Beach to Ahipara and down the coast, perhaps as far as Mitimiti - and could be past saving, thanks to the Ministry for Primary Industries' lack of action.

"The ministry has given the sea squirt a four-year head start," he said.

"There has got to be a better way of responding to biosecurity threats than this Neville Chamberlain approach."

The invasive sea squirt had first been reported, at Twilight Beach, by a member of the public in 2009. It was investigated and surveyed by the Ministry for Primary Industries, and small-scale removal and destruction trials had been carried out over the last four years.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Austen said, the species had continued to spread, the ministry now concluding that it was so widespread that limitation control on a small scale was the only realistic course of action.

"The end result of this will be the same as taking no action at all; Pyura is here to stay," he added.

"It shows a clear preference for the intertidal locations and habitats of the green-lipped mussel, and you don't need a degree in marine science to understand that it is smothering mussels, or that, once established on the rocks, it will occupy the habitat of the mussels."

The ministry was insisting Pyura was not a threat to the mussel industry, despite the fact that very little was known about the origins of wild spat. He found it difficult to imagine how a foreign species that was occupying the mussel habitat could fail to affect spat production.

"Only a serious, dedicated team could have any impact on it now, given that it has a four-year head start on any attempt to eradicate it," Mr Austen said, but the ministry's response had been to allocate $45,000 over three years to conduct limited control.

"I'm buggered if I know what anyone is expecting to be achieved with that," he said.

"We could have stopped this if something had been done in 2009. As it is there was really no point in even reporting it in the first place.

"It's the same scenario we saw with the tropical grass web worm at Pukenui and the sea squirt at Whangamata. The idea, apparently, is to do nothing. It's unbelievable."

******

The Ministry for Primary Industries undertook on Wednesday to provide a response, but had not done so by yesterday's deadline.

ENDS ...