By ANNE BESTON and NZPA
Containers from high-risk countries will be more closely inspected after the discovery of a third snake at New Zealand ports in as many weeks, says Biosecurity Minister Marian Hobbs.
The latest import, a 70cm specimen found at Auckland's container terminal on Sunday, has been provisionally identified as
a poisonous Australian tiger snake.
John Burton, the Ministry of Fisheries cargo and vessel clearance manager, said it would be sent to Lincoln University for formal identification.
Ms Hobbs said yesterday that the discovery of three snakes was unprecedented and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry would use Quarantine Service dogs at container terminals to improve snake detection.
MAF was also reviewing the risks and import health standards for shipping containers.
The arrivals have biologists concerned that snakes will eventually establish themselves here.
Sunday's reptile came from a container off a ship from Fremantle in Western Australia.
The snake was noticed by a crane operator, who dropped a container on it.
Last month, a poisonous Australian snake was found and killed at Petone, near a storage park with containers from Brisbane.
A week later, a tree-pit viper from Indonesia was found alive in a container at Lyttelton.
Ms Hobbs said that as part of the review, MAF would measure the efficiency of container inspections, investigate the use of x-ray technology and detector dogs, target high-risk containers and contact the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service to ensure compliance with health standards.
The ministry would also write to shipping companies to ask how they verified container certificates stating that the containers were clean, she said.
Shipping companies and containers with records of erroneous certification would be identified and targeted for inspection, and information on the risks exotic pests posed to New Zealand would be given to importers and shipping companies.
Environmentalists yesterday urged the Government to impose tough penalties on exporters shipping pests here, and to improve the cleaning and inspection of containers.
Kevin Smith, conservation director of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, said Labour was elected with an excellent biosecurity policy, but was failing to improve border controls.
He said present laws allowed for ships to be turned away from New Zealand ports if pests were found, while containers could be ordered to be removed.
