Australian
Quarantine Inspection Service officers working with the RAN’s
heavy landing ship HMAS Wewak (LCDR Etienne Mulder) have checked
more than 60 vessels to determine if they complied with Australia’s
quarantine laws.
A number of breaches were detected, AQIS told Navy News.
The vessel checks were just part of a wider quarantine related
patrol. Officers of the Northern Australian Quarantine Strategy
sailed on Wewak in November to check coastal areas and inshore
islands of remote Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
It was the sixth survey of its kind undertaken with the RAN and
a clear indication of the versatility of the RAN’s six 316-tonne
LCHs.
Wewak left HMAS Cairns with the quarantine vessel AQV Wodyetia
under tow to patrol key coastal locations, to survey for animal
and plant pests and diseases, weeds, and international waste as
part of the NAQS early warning system. One aim of the patrol was
to check offshore islands and remote coastal areas for quarantine
risks.
They also surveyed stretches of coastline for high levels of international
waste which may have been washed ashore and to investigate possible
illegal landing sites.
The survey was also very useful for targeting international yacht
and domestic vessels to monitor quarantine compliance. More than
60 vessels were checked for compliance with Australian quarantine
laws, AQIS said. A number of breaches of the laws were detected.
Vessels planning to travel in Torres Strait were educated on the
quarantine risks associated with carrying food, plants and animals
from the Torres Strait Protected Zone to the Australian mainland.
Dr Jonathon Lee, NAQS Veterinary Manager, joined the expedition
to survey feral pig and bird populations.
The 2004 animal survey placed special emphasis on surveying bird
populations for signs of avian influenza.
Several hundred birds were reported dead off Mornington Island
in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
They were found to have died not from disease but from exhaustion
during a storm.
