8 Advertiser Your Community Voice bayofplentytimes.co.nz | Oct 11, 2018 INLETNews Yo ur voiceOmokoroa –TePuna – Phone 5490270 Pouncing on pretend pond pests

Apseudo-pond will help visitors at next Saturday’s Lizard Market in O¯ mokoroaidentify aquatic pests in their backyards and waterways. The pondpest pop-up event on October 20, has been created by Regional Council as part of aweek-long push for biosecurity education in the region. Market visitors will be able to view acolourful, snap-together Pests like this catfish will devour corflute pond that depicts inanga, whitebait and other unwanted catfish, perch, tench, native species. rudd and koi carpaswell as a range of undesirable plants. Life- the roots out of nativeplants and sized samples of pestfish will cause riverbanks to erode. also help with identification. “Thewaterways around our At next Saturday’s Lizard Market “We need to remind people region are really, really visitors will be able to view the their ponds can overflow into important and pests can have a pond pest display, seen here at a other waterways, sopest plants huge impact on them.” garden event. and fish end up in places where Council biosecurity officer they shouldn’tbe,” says regional Donna Watchman willbe iwi, government, science, council biosecurity manager teaching people to identify pests education and business Greg Corbett. by colour, size and other features representativestolead and take Two massive koi carp were removed from the Waimapu estuary. “In some cases, gardeners will such as distinctive barbels under action towards biosecurity unwittingly swap plants without the jaw of afish. She will also excellence. in actively seeking Unusualdiscoveries or pests realising they’re doing show images of the native eels The O¯ mokoroa event is part of and reporting known pestsor can be reported to something hugely damaging.” the council hopes to protect and anational Ko Ta¯tou This Is Us potential new pests,” Mr Corbett [email protected] He says one plant, salvinia, will hand out chocolate fish to campaign that aimstocreate a says. by calling 0800 STOP PESTS. can quickly clog waterways and curiouspassers-by. biosecurity team of 4.7 million He says if Bay of Plenty Exotic pests and diseasescan createasignificant floodrisk, or The interactive pond stand is New Zealanders. residents and visitors spot also be reported to MPI on 0800 80 chokeother plants and change one of aseriesofactivities TMBC hopes to show other something weird, invasive or 99 66. the ecosystem of astream or surrounding the launch of communities how to work new at home, at work or river.Pests such as catfish will Moana Biosecurity together to guard what is anywhere else,they should catch ■ For information about TMBC eat inanga, whitebait and other Capital (TMBC), acollaboration precious. it, trap it, or snap (photograph)it Biosecurity Week, see nativespecies, while carp suck that bringstogether councils, “We’d like to have everyone and report their find. www.tmbiosecurity.co.nz

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