Hitchhiker pest risk assessments

Last updated: 5 May 2022

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How hitchhiker pest risk assessments are reflected in the app

Every vessel is given a risk rating, which is a combined output of our risk assessments for AGM (Asian gypsy moth ¹ ) and BMSB (brown marmorated stink bug ² ).

The risk assessments compare a vessel’s travel history with the AGM and BMSB management measures as defined by the Craft Risk Management Standard: Vessels ³ (CRMS: Vessels) and the Import Health Standard: Vehicles, Machinery and Parts ⁴ (IHS: VMP) in order to identify possible presence of the managed organism. Starboard evaluates risk based on vessel pathways rather than freight.

The colour of the vessel on the map represents this risk of having hitchhiker pests (AGM and/or BMSB) on board, as determined by the occurrence of port visits in an AGM and/or BMSB risk area during the risk period. All dates specified to calculate risks are in NZST/NZDT.

Hitchhiker pest risk ratings for arriving vessels are reset on departure from a New Zealand port or anchorage, after a stay for any duration. This is based on the assumption that a vessel has passed MPI’s clearance standards when it is permitted into a New Zealand port or anchorage.

AGM	The vessel has visited an AGM risk area during the relevant risk period within the last 12 months
BMSB	The vessel is a cargo vessel and has visited a BMSB risk country during the risk period
AGM, BMSB	The vessel has visited an AGM risk area during the relevant risk period within the last 12 months and The vessel is a cargo vessel and has visited a BMSB risk country during the risk period
Low risk	The vessel did not visit an AGM risk area during the relevant risk period, and has no AIS data gaps of >12 hours during that time and The vessel is a cargo vessel and did not visit a BMSB risk country during the risk period, and has no AIS data gaps of >12 hours during that time or The vessel had visited AGM and/or BMSB risk areas during relevant risk periods or has AIS data gaps of >12 hours during that time, but has been to a New Zealand port since
Unknown risk	The vessel did not visit an AGM risk area during the relevant risk period, but has at least one AIS data gap of >12 hours during that time, when it could have visited a risk area and/or The vessel is a cargo vessel and did not visit a BMSB risk country during the risk period, but has at least one AIS data gap of >12 hours during that time, when it could have loaded risk goods from a risk country

Hitchhiker pest information is updated daily at approximately 4 pm NZST.

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How our AGM risk assessment works

Starboard’s AGM risk assessment that determines the risk of infestation of vessels closely follows the AGM management measures outlined in the CRMS: Vessels (2018). These measures apply to vessels arriving in New Zealand that have visited a risk area during the last 12 months, with that visit having taken place during a risk period for the area in question.

Starboard considers all vessels globally and searches their track history over the past twelve months. Any vessel that has visited at least one risk area during its respective risk period has a rating of ‘Risk’ for AGM.

AGM risk areas and periods are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Asian gypsy moth risk areas and risk periods (from CRMS: Vessels, Schedule 2)

Risk area	Risk is assigned upon visit to any port in these sub-areas	Risk period
Russian far east	South of 60˚N and west of 147˚E (excluding those ports on the Kamchatka Peninsula)	1 July to 30 September
China	North of latitude of 31.25˚N (excluding Shanghai)	1 June to 30 September
Republic of Korea	All areas	1 June to 30 September
Japan – northern	Prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima	1 July to 30 September
Japan – western	Prefectures of Akita, Yamagata, Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa	25 June to 15 September
Japan – eastern	Prefectures of Fukui, Ibaraki, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi, Mie	20 June to 20 August
Japan – southern	Prefectures of Wakayama, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kagawa, Tokushima, Ehime, Kochi, Fukuoka, Oita, Saga, Nagasaki, Miyazaki, Kumamoto, Kagoshima	1 June to 10 August
Japan – far southern	Prefecture of Okinawa	25 May to 30 June

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How our BMSB risk assessment works

Starboard’s BMSB risk assessment that determines the risk of BMSB infestation of vessels closely follows the BMSB management measures outlined in the IHS: VMP.

The BMSB management measures apply to risk goods (vehicles, machinery, and parts) originating from or passing through BMSB risk countries listed in Schedule 3 of the IHS: VMP, and arriving in New Zealand during the risk period. 38 risk countries are identified (Table 2).

Table 2: Schedule 3 risk countries

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While the BMSB management measures in the IHS: VMP apply to the cargo, our assessment evaluates risk at the vessel level. As a result of our vessel-centric view, some criteria used to determine BMSB risk differ between the management standard and the Starboard risk assessment. These differences are shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Differences between IHS: VMP BMSB management standard and Starboard risk assessment

Criteria	IHS: VMP Schedule 3 BMSB Management	Starboard risk model	Further details
Goods type	Vehicles, machinery, parts, and new tyres	Any	All cargo vessels, regardless of goods on board, are included in the risk analysis. All other vessel types are set to ‘no BMSB risk’. See IHS: VMP Schedule 3 (1).
Goods origin	Any risk country	Any risk country with export pathways via a risk country.	For risk countries without maritime ports, the maritime export pathways are generally still via high risk neighbouring ports, so anticipated deviations are minimal. However, any goods originating from a risk country but transhipped via a non-risk country, and subsequently loaded onto a vessel with no BMSB risk prior to arrival in NZ, would be missed. See IHS: VMP Schedule 3 (1a).
Risk country	38 countries (see Table 2)	38 countries (see Table 2)	See IHS: VMP Schedule 3 (2).
Export / load date	On or after 1 September	On or after 1 September	See IHS: VMP Schedule 3 (1a,b).
Duration of goods in transit or storage in a risk country before being loaded in that country	> 5 days	Any duration	For cargo originating outside a risk country, but loaded from a risk country after less than 5 days in storage/transit, our model will still flag the vessel for BMSB risk, as it may have loaded other goods originating directly from the risk country. See IHS: VMP Schedule 3 (1).
Arrival date in NZ	From 1 September to 30 April	From 1 September to 30 April	See IHS: VMP Schedule 3 (1c).

Classifications from the Starboard risk assessment are similar to, but slightly more cautious than the IHS: VMP management standard. This is a consequence of analysing vessel movements rather than cargo manifests. The following example pathways illustrate this difference.

Pathways which could result in inaccurately classifying a vessel as ‘Risk’ for BMSB in Starboard:

• Vessels transporting non-risk goods (only) from a risk country;
• Vessels transporting risk goods that spent less than 5 days in a risk country prior to being loaded;
• Vessels that transported risk goods from a risk country during the risk period, but subsequently unloaded these goods prior to arrival in NZ; and
• Vessels arriving in NZ with risk goods on board, but only non-risk goods are unloaded.

Pathways which could result in incorrectly classifying a vessel as ‘No risk’ for BMSB in Starboard:

• Risk goods originating from a risk country, but loaded onto a vessel at a non-risk port (if the vessel has visited any risk countries en route to New Zealand, it will be correctly flagged as having BMSB risk); and
• Risk goods originating from a risk country, but transshipped via a non-risk country, and subsequently loaded onto a vessel with no BMSB risk prior to arrival.

Note that conditions which could exempt individual containers or freight from BMSB management measures do not exempt its carrier vessel from risk assessment in Starboard. For example, the IHS: VMP allows goods to be loaded into a fully enclosed container which is sealed before 1 September and then exported before 1 October of the same year without raising a risk rating.

Furthermore, the IHS: VMP does not raise a risk rating for breakbulk transshipped through a risk country if the duration in the risk country is less than 120 hours and if the goods are segregated from sources of possible BMSB infestation. Likewise, risk goods in a fully enclosed container are deemed safe if the contents remain in the unopened container while in the risk country.

In each of these examples, Starboard assigns BMSB risk to the vessel, covering the possible presence of the bugs in goods loaded at the risk port which do not meet the exemption conditions.

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References

1. Asian gypsy moths of the following species: Lymantria dispar asiatica, Lymantria dispar japonica, Lymantria umbrosa, Lymantria albescens and Lymantria postalba.
2. Halyomorpha halys.
3. Ministry for Primary Industries. Craft Risk Management Standard: Vessels. 2018; (16 October). Accessed 13 May 2021. https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/19757-The-Craft-Risk-Management-Standard-for-vessels.
4. Ministry for Primary Industries. Import Health Standard: Vehicles, Machinery and Parts. 2021; (11 August). Accessed 29 April 2022. https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/30224-Vehicles-Machinery-and-Parts-Import-Health-Standard.