The didymo disaster

by frog

Great news that the full weight of the law has finally been put in place to deal with the didymo situation, but, I hate to say it, ‘told you so’ a year ago.

Of course, as Fish and Game have said (offline), ultimately preventing the spread of this noxious goo comes down to individuals taking action. As Jim Anderton said on Morning Report this morning, you can’t line every river with bureaucrats to stop people. But the legal sanctions coming online at least transmits the seriousness of the situation.

Why does it take an environmental problem to really get out of hand BEFORE serious action is taken? This is a classic example of a situation where the precautionary principle should have been applied at the outset. These legal sanctions should have swung into place a year ago when it was known it was in the Waiau and therefore COULD have been elsewhere, not now that we know it has spread throughout the island already.

frog says

Published in Environment & Resource Management by frog on Fri, December 9th, 2005   

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