From Australian Oceans Data Network
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Prioritising domestic locations for marine biosecurity management within a regional vessel network

Created 17/11/2025

Updated 17/11/2025

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Abstract: Growing economic development is dramatically increasing international and domestic maritime trade. A network of vessel traffic facilitates this trade, but also the movement and introduction of marine invaders. Each vessel movement can transport organisms beyond their natural range, threatening destination ecosystems and economies. Understanding vessel movements is key to predicting and managing potential incursions and the continued dispersal of non-indigenous species (NIS). Here, we present a powerful, transferable framework for quantifying the relative likelihood of NIS incursion and vessel-mediated dispersal through international and domestic maritime networks. We used two proxies of potential NIS transfer, derived from the movements of commercial and recreational vessels. One for NIS movements via a ship’s wetted hull surface area, and a second via ballast water. We demonstrate our framework with a case-study of New Zealand’s marine transport system. Using network analysis, we quantified relative incursion likelihood for each site from 1) international and 2) domestic vessel arrivals. Lastly, we quantified the extent of ‘secondary exposure’ for sites one more stop downstream of the high-risk sites identified in 1 & 2. Sites with the highest relative incursion likelihood were Auckland, Tauranga, Bluff, and New Plymouth. Several domestic sites were critical stepping-stone sites (e.g. Auckland and Tauranga) or local ‘spatial super-spreaders’ of NIS (e.g. Wellington, Lyttelton). We identified several locations experiencing elevated secondary exposure (e.g. Whanganui and Ravensbourne) – sites that may not be flagged by traditional biosecurity prioritisation approaches. This network-based approach is transferable to any jurisdiction with vessel data, to support NIS surveillance and pathway management.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Prioritising domestic locations for marine biosecurity management within a regional vessel network
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/ae6fef70-be68-4aa4-a840-786fc0665c9f
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
reception@aims.gov.au
Reference Period 22/10/2025
Geospatial Coverage Australia
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "Prioritising domestic locations for marine biosecurity management within a regional vessel network". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/prioritising-domestic-locations-for-marine-biosecurity-management-within-a-regional-vessel-netw