Last week I learned of an aviation charter specialist that has the unique capability to manage high-value falcon movements for Middle Eastern royal families and VIP clients.
Somewhere in the skies right now, as falconry season ramps up, a royal is having their prized bird flown back home, on a private jet likely in a passenger seat.
The falcon, oddly enough, will remain hooded throughout the journey to ensure they are calm and comfortable. It’s standard practice, if I’m reliably informed, in falcon transportation.
More often than not in transport the priority is to prevent the animals boarding.
Shippers, landside operators and customs brokers ready themselves annually in Australia for another season, certainly less festive than it sounds, dedicated this time to stink bugs.
The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, as it is less endearingly named, prefers to stowaway in imported goods or within packing spaces.
The smell it emits, mainly as a defence mechanism is not, despite its name, the main threat it poses. If established, stink bugs would eat crops, destroy plants, not to mention become a likely nuisance in homes and buildings.
Cross border transport is subject to strict regulations regarding invasive species and the carriage of certain foods and products that might conceal something with the potential to cause ecological harm.
In the world of international trade, freight vessels are sought out routinely by a litany of undesirables looking to hitch a ride. Containers being an obvious one.
Whatcom County earlier this year was the site of a truck accident in which 14 million pollinating bees were set free after a truck rolled over.
The overturned truck was carrying an estimated 70,000 pounds of honeybee hives, which contained live bees.
More than two dozen beekeepers responded to the site where hive boxes from the overturned truck were recovered, restored and returned to use. The bees eventually found their queen bee and re-hived.
Interestingly enough, for the past five years teams in Washington State have been eradicating invasive murder hornets.
The insects — more formally known as northern giant hornets — pose a significant threat to honeybees and other native insects in the Pacific Northwest.
They can kill an entire hive in as little as 90 minutes by decapitating the bees. They were first spotted in British Columbia, Canada in August 2019 and confirmed in Washington in December of that year.
The general consensus is they most likely arrived on commercial shipping containers.
The Australian Fumigation Accreditation Scheme (AFAS) is a bilateral arrangement between the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and participating overseas government agencies.
AFAS manages the high biosecurity risk posed by ineffective treatments performed offshore on associated packaging for quarantine and pre-shipment purposes.
A registry is in place for accredited pre-border biosecurity treatment providers.
These will specialise in heat treatment methodologies, methyl bromide fumigation, controlled atmosphere treatment, sulfuryl fluoride fumigation, ethyl formate fumigation, insecticide treatments in addition to a host of other applications.
WorkSafe Victoria has two health and safety solutions in place just for the clearance of methyl bromide and venting prior to unpacking primarily for the safety of the end-user.
Christmas, especially for many young families this year will come, at some stage, on a container.
It calls to mind a comic moment in Barfly when Mickey Rourke is asked about his previous employment at a toy factory: “You don’t know how men suffer for children.”
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