The ocean-going vessel, Green Ridge, anchored in Apra Harbor on May 2. The ship was moored at the Port Authority of Guam but was moved out to the harbor after black widow spiders were discovered onboard.
The spread of invasive species is one of the greatest threats to the island's environment, economy, public health and way of life.
The recent case of a spider-infested ship that made it to the Port last week shows just how vulnerable our island is to invasive threats. It was infested with black widow spiders. While Customs officers fumigated and cleared the ship, they also found snails and another kind of spider in a shipping container previously thought to be unaffected.
As a result of this incident, Customs Director Pedro Leon Guerrero says his agency is going to increase the presence of Customs officers at the Port.
Leon Guerrero said the ship made its way through international ports before arriving on Guam but, since it was domestic, officers didn't perform high-risk inspections. He said the agency is revising its standard operating procedures to prevent recurrence of this kind of problem.
Customs should take every step necessary to avoid similar problems in the future, but what our community needs is a law that would help the island fight invasive species and adequately provide resources to the agencies that protect our borders.
The local government has failed to fully implement a law, passed more than two years ago, meant to bolster the island's efforts to address invasive species. Public Law 31-43 established the Guam Invasive Species Council, authorized a biosecurity division at the Department of Agriculture and identified funding, through a fee, meant to combat invasive species.
The council meets, but the government hasn't established the biosecurity division and still hasn't implemented the fee, which would generate local matching money for federal funds and would result in up to $1.8 million in annual funding to fight invasive species.
The government also must establish a strategic biosecurity and invasive species management plan for the island that includes prevention, inspection, mitigation and eradication. GovGuam struggles with its inspection and mitigation efforts and there is little to no capacity locally to address eradicating invasive species.
GovGuam must do much more to fight the threat of invasive species, and the place to start is the full implementation of Public Law 31-43.