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Hull fouling: what do New Zealand and Australia require when you arrive?
Short answer
New Zealand and Australia keep foreign species out of their waters and require visiting yachts to
arrive with a clean hull and evidence to show it.
Arriving with fouling?
Then expect conditions, usually a clean at your own cost.
Barnacles, mussels and weed travel the world on hulls, and some of them do serious harm in new waters. Since 2018 New Zealand has required every vessel, yachts included, to arrive with a clean hull. Australia also checks fouling on arrival and asks about it beforehand, and in the Galápagos divers inspect the hull. For bluewater crews crossing the Pacific this is not a side issue, because a hull that has spent months in tropical water fouls quickly, whatever the antifouling.
The requirements are updated from time to time; what counts is the current position from New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries, MPI, and from Australia's Department of Agriculture, DAFF. In principle there are three routes: have the hull cleaned shortly before arrival, keep it clean throughout with antifouling and regular maintenance, or have it cleaned under supervision straight after arrival. Evidence is what matters, such as invoices, dated photos and the date of the last antifouling. Niche areas like the propeller, shaft, through hulls and rudder bearings get a close look.
Plan the clean before the last leg, for example in New Caledonia or Fiji, and send your advance notice of arrival as required. Go through the stores at the same time, because fresh food, wood and plants are often seized at the border. Budget for cleaning, a haul out or a diver as part of the running costs of the passage, not as something unexpected. Prepare well and you arrive without conditions and without losing days in port.
Worth remembering
Clean hull
arrival without conditions
Fouled hull
cleaning at your cost, days lost
Before New Zealand and Australia you clean the hull before anyone asks.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
What counts as a clean hull for New Zealand?
In principle no more than a thin slime layer, with no barnacles, mussels or weed, including in niche areas. MPI publishes the current standard.
How do I prove the hull was cleaned?
With the yard's or diver's invoice, dated photos and the date of the last antifouling. Keep them to hand when you arrive.
Where should I clean before New Zealand?
On the last stop with a yard or diver, often New Caledonia or Fiji, so that little time passes before arrival. Ask other crews which places can do it.
Related
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