Approval of crayfish imports criticised

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 27

Approval of crayfish imports criticised

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has come under fire from the conservation movement for approving the import of marron (Australian crayfish). Marron are large and aggressive freshwater crayfish which grow to 15cm or more. If they escaped into the wild they could have a drastic impact on native freshwater species. The Ministry has approved the importation in spite of opposition from its own scientists. Marron have already

been introduced into South Australia and parts of Europe, and have caused problems either through direct competition for food, or by predation and habitat destruction.

An article in the recent edition of “Eco,” the journal of the Environment and Conservation Organisations, sets out the opposition to marron. It said the environmental impact assessment had been inadequate and a quarantine certificate waived.

Besides the threat marron posed in themselves, the importation might

result in the inadvertent introduction of a disease that had a catastrophic effect on freshwater crayfish. This had happened in Britain and could ruin native crayfish populations.

This importation of marron was a serious risk to New Zealand freshwater ecosystems, the journal said, and was an excellent illustration of the inability of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to assess the potential impacts of a new species. After the equally illadvised introduction of chinchilla in 1985, the Ministry had adopted SO-

called environmental impact assessments for all new importation requests.

But although anyone wanting to introduce new species had to fill out an assessment document, this was never audited. The assessment on marron had been severely criticised by the Commission for the Environment but that criticism had been ignored.

Environmental impact reports needed to be made, and then audited by the new Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, the journal said.