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Oregon Invasive Species Council

Asian Toad Gap Analysis Report 2009
Incident summary
In August of 2008, a Hanjin shipping container from China loaded with
granite arrived at Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland. Customs and Border
Protection staff discovered an amphibian and several spiders and immediately
resealed the container. Lack of identification of the amphibian and an
inefficient communication structure delayed decisions and actions regarding
the container and resulted in hundreds of hours of staff time across
numerous agencies and organizations before it was ultimately resolved. The
US Fish and Wildlife Service and Port of Portland recommended the Oregon
Invasive Species Council take the lead in producing this report and
convening a workgroup comprised of the entities involved in the "Asian toad
incident" to summarize the incident, assess whether actions taken were
conducted in accordance with pertinent regulations, identify possible gaps
in regulations, and make suggestions to improve interjurisdictional
interdiction activities.
 
For full version of the report in pdf format

Next steps
The next step in the process is to implement some of the recommendations of
the Asian toad work group. These include the creation of an INVADER ALERT listserv (the listserv has been created and fully functional.  Each participating organization will understand the guidelines for use of the listserv, within the next two weeks) that will be used to notify potentially affected organizations should a similar incident occur in the future (to prevent the amount of down-time and confusion that took place during this incident) as well as meetings with ports in Seattle and Vancouver to discuss lesions learned from this incident and potential protocols that can be implemented in Washington ports. There was also discussion of a potential meeting with the Washington Invasive Species Council.
Questions
Please contact Oregon Invasive Species Council Coordinator Lisa DeBruyckere at (503) 704-2884 or lisad@createstrat.com  should you need special services, materials, or assistance.