Celebrating the smallest member of the TasPorts team
This World Bee Day we’re sharing little known facts about bees and the collaboration between TasPorts and Biosecurity Tasmania.
Posted
20 May 2022
Today is World Bee Day.
Australia has thousands of native bee species, with many being endemic to Tasmania. Native bees have co-evolved with our unique native flora over thousands of years and some species of plants can only be pollinated by a particular species of native bee.
Without bees, our biodiversity is at risk.
As part of the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program (NBPSP), TasPorts hosts a number of sentinel hives across our multi-port system. These hives help ensure Tasmania remains free of exotic pest bees and regionalised pests that may arrive in shipping containers or other products.
Teams check the hives every 6 weeks, alongside a range of surveillance methods to ensure our hives remain healthy and pest free.
The National Bee Pest Surveillance Program
Set up as an early warning system to detect new incursions of exotic bee pests and pest bees, the program focuses on Australian ports, both sea and air.
The NBPSP is a jointly funded program by the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, Hort Innovation, Grain Producers Australia and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. In-kind contributions for the implementation of the program are provided through each state and territory Department of Agriculture, as well as volunteer beekeepers.
To find out more about the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program in Tasmania, visit the Biosecurity Tasmania website.
