KEY POINTS:
The final voyage of the old navy warship Canterbury may be delayed because of fears of spreading the invasive sea squirt to Northland.
The Government sold the old 3000-tonne Leader-class frigate to the Bay of Islands Trust which planned to sink it in Deep Water Cove at Cape Brett.
The trust had hoped to have the ship towed to Opua before Christmas to be prepared for sinking later this year but it may now have to find another $30,000 to clean the hull.
The trust was told the ship may have to be put into dry dock for the hull to be cleaned because of fears it may be carrying the sea squirt.
Trust spokesman Kelly Weeds said it had been hoped divers could clean the ship without putting it in dry dock but the trust would not know for another fortnight if that was possible.
He said the trust initially did not think cleaning the hull was a big problem.
"We didn't think it was a major but we had some confusing messages just before Christmas to say it might be a little dirtier than we thought.
"It may yet to be dry docked which is a bit if a hiccup because we had not planned on that."
He said commercial divers would inspect the hull to see if it could be cleaned using rotating brushes but if the growth and marine deposits on the hull could not be brushed off, the ship would have to be dry docked so it could be scraped off.
He said fundraising stopped when the Department of Conservation objected to the sinking but now that objection had been withdrawn and a resource consent had been granted, fund raising would resume, Mr Weeds said.
Sea squirt poses a potential risk to New Zealand's aquaculture industry and biodiversity. It competes for space and can blanket oyster and mussel lines, suffocating shellfish.
- NZPA
