BIOSECURITY - Only half the picture?

[Kurlie1]

Greetings all.


I'm interested in your thoughts on this topic. Here in NZ .. and I'm sure in many other parts of the world .. the boating population is currently under intense pressure to up it's game relating to the environment. All marinas and many cruising destinations are deanding recent paperwork relating to hull cleanliness before allowing access.


https://www.marinepests.nz/





Whilst I applaud the move in this direction I feel the pressure is not focussing on enviromental solutions.
Vis-a-vis "paint poison on your hull to kill the pests" ??


Our club/marina is currently investing big dollars to upgrade haul-out and cleaning facilities but still the ablative antifoul bottom paint is the "general" solution ..


What are we doimg to the overall marine environment by leaching toxins?


Yes .. I know of Coppercoat .. and have used it on a previous boat

I see some evidence of (overseas) opperations the use hull cleaning systems - NO antifoul paint allowed


Help me out here.
What are your thoughts and experiences?
What does your club/marina/Council (marine authority) promote as a solution to the MAJOR issue of maritime hygene?


I feel guity everytime I dive on my hull - or beach clean (ablative paint) to brush off the accumulating film of mud (The river where my boat lives has a very high sediment-in-suspension content.


thanks

[ItDepends]

Sounds to me like you just need to get rid of your boat and find another hobby that you feel is less damaging. Let's face it, none of use NEED to have boats. All the damage you imagine you are doing is just in the name of YOU having FUN. How do you justify that?

If you REALLY believed it was all that damaging you would not even sell your boat, you'd cut it up for scrap and go do something else for fun. Your boat will never pollute again. You will never feel guilty again (about that).

Hand-wringing over things you can't control is unattractive. You are doing the same over something you have 100% control over. That's just silly.

[Kurlie1]

Sorry you feel the need to judge ... I was asking for POSITIVE feedback on what other solutions are being employed..
No "hand-wringing" here just thinking of the future and posible SOLUTIONS.

[Kurlie1]

Are there any cruisers out there using the "Boat-wash" system?
Is it cost effective?

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by Kurlie1

Greetings all.


I'm interested in your thoughts on this topic. Here in NZ .. and I'm sure in many other parts of the world .. the boating population is currently under intense pressure to up it's game relating to the environment. All marinas and many cruising destinations are deanding recent paperwork relating to hull cleanliness before allowing access.


https://www.marinepests.nz/





Whilst I applaud the move in this direction I feel the pressure is not focussing on enviromental solutions.
Vis-a-vis "paint poison on your hull to kill the pests" ??


Our club/marina is currently investing big dollars to upgrade haul-out and cleaning facilities but still the ablative antifoul bottom paint is the "general" solution ..


What are we doimg to the overall marine environment by leaching toxins?


Yes .. I know of Coppercoat .. and have used it on a previous boat

I see some evidence of (overseas) opperations the use hull cleaning systems - NO antifoul paint allowed


Help me out here.
What are your thoughts and experiences?
What does your club/marina/Council (marine authority) promote as a solution to the MAJOR issue of maritime hygene?


I feel guity everytime I dive on my hull - or beach clean (ablative paint) to brush off the accumulating film of mud (The river where my boat lives has a very high sediment-in-suspension content.


thanks

Given that you are in NZ you probably won't have to worry for long, why I just read that the incumbent government wants to introduce a tax on cows because of the excessive belching methane, the logic appears to be that taxing will somehow reduce the pollution. No doubt the addition of a tax on in water vessels would have a similar result.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by ItDepends

. Let's face it, none of use NEED to have boats. .

Speak for yourself not the rest of us.

For many our boat is our home so yes, we NEED to have them.

[RaymondR]

They get a bit fanatical over there at times.

There was a time when transiting air passengers from north America on their way to Australia had to undergo "worming" for intestinal parasites on the stopovers.

[Kurlie1]

Come now boyz-n-gals ... This is an international forum.
This is a very real situation ... I'm seriously exploring options.


I expect this will soon be an international quandary.
Yes.. NZ is very environmentally sensitive ... Is this a bad thing??

[Kurlie1]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Given that you are in NZ you probably won't have to worry for long, why I just read that the incumbent government wants to introduce a tax on cows because of the excessive belching methane, the logic appears to be that taxing will somehow reduce the pollution. No doubt the addition of a tax on in water vessels would have a similar result.

Arrr .. Must be a VERY old newspaper you're reading
Like about ..mmmm ...7 years ago

[Macdoug]

I agree. The antifoul issue worries me. I have looked into other solutions, but none yet seem viable. I would be interested in any new possibilities that are less environmentally damaging. And no giving up my boat isn’t something I want to do.

[grantmc]

Kurlie you're absolutely right to be concerned and you're certainly not alone in your disquiet. Each time I water spray the hull before repainting I watch a great deal of paint going down the drain in the water. Where does it go? And I dread to have to sometimes touch the toxic sludge beneath the boats in the little harbour I'm moored in.

I've sadly no solution. But that said there's no compulsion to coat your boats hulls with antifoul. If inclined you could just wash the bottom every couple of months. The use of ablative paint is simply for convenience and to minimise cost. Although I guess a serious solution is copper sheathing. Perhaps experiment with its use on GRP hulls?

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Given that you are in NZ you probably won't have to worry for long, why I just read that the incumbent government wants to introduce a tax on cows because of the excessive belching methane, the logic appears to be that taxing will somehow reduce the pollution. No doubt the addition of a tax on in water vessels would have a similar result.

No Bob it's not a belch tax like in Oz, on this side of the ditch it's a fart tax. And I think it's a great thing. Over many generations farmers here in NZ have been able to avoid the cost and consequences of their environmental damages, and not just CO2 and methane emissions, but fertisliser run off causing algal blooms and water pollution, right through to wilding pines

[geoleo]

Originally Posted by grantmc

Kurlie you're absolutely right to be concerned and you're certainly not alone in your disquiet. Each time I water spray the hull before repainting I watch a great deal of paint going down the drain in the water. Where does it go? And I dread to have to sometimes touch the toxic sludge beneath the boats in the little harbour I'm moored in.

I've sadly no solution. But that said there's no compulsion to coat your boats hulls with antifoul. If inclined you could just wash the bottom every couple of months. The use of ablative paint is simply for convenience and to minimise cost. Although I guess a serious solution is copper sheathing. Perhaps experiment with its use on GRP hulls?


No Bob it's not a belch tax like in Oz, on this side of the ditch it's a fart tax. And I think it's a great thing. Over many generations farmers here in NZ have been able to avoid the cost and consequences of their environmental damages, and not just CO2 and methane emissions, but fertisliser run off causing algal blooms and water pollution, right through to wilding pines

What about coke and other soft drinks and beer and Champagne bubbling out that CO2 into the atmosphere destroying planet earth thru global warming climate change?? Doesnt this also make you feel guilty? or do you abstain from these?.

[Franziska]

If you have a marina spot you can tarp the boat with a black underwater tarp. It does work to some extent.
Some folks add a drop of bleach inside the tarp, but that's perhaps not better than the soft antifouling.

Regarding your push against soft antifoulings. Recreational boating is minute in terms of underwater surface area when you compare it to commercial shipping.
Funny enough it's this small area which has to use less and less efficient antifoulings, while the big guys still have products which are supposed to be effective up to 90 months.
Feels like you are really barking up the wrong tree to some extend.

There should be much more pressure to come up with solutions to the commercial sector which would be usable as well on the recreational side.
The big guys buy the bulk of antifouling and that's where the research needs to be.

Coppercoat works for some but is still unaffordable for many cruisers. Not everybody cruises in boats several 100000€ worth...

If there are better solutions I'd gladly change for a better solution.

Same applies btw. to forcing people into marinas instead of allowing them to anchor.
It's primarily a way to cash in for communities and marina holdings, veiled under a thin green washing cloth.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by Kurlie1

Arrr .. Must be a VERY old newspaper you're reading
Like about ..mmmm ...7 years ago

New Zealand plans to tax agricultural emissions — including those related to the burps, urine and dung from livestock like cows and sheep — in a move its government hopes will help the country meet climate change goals.

The aim is for the “agricultural emissions-pricing system” to come into force in 2025. A consultation looking at how levies are set, transition assistance and sequestration — which the document defines as “the process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere” — was launched this week, and will run until Nov. 18.

The government said revenue from the levy would be “recycled back into [the] agriculture sector through new technology, research and incentive payments to farmers.”

The idea of introducing such a system by the middle of this decade was contained within an emissions reduction plan published in May 2022, as well as a recommendation published in June by the He Waka Eke Noa – Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership.

[goboatingnow]

All major agricultural countries are grappling with farm animal herd control. Right now on Ireland plans to disincentivise herd expansion are being considered and they are extremely contentious given Ireland is the largest Eu beef exporter

It’s a problem everywhere

Anti fouling issues are getting more difficult. A new marina here in Greece does not have run off containment so it does not allow anti fouling to be removed on its yard.