Live Seafood Species as Recipes for Invasion

Abstract

A global market in seafood disperses many live organisms to distant locations. These organisms can be released into environments of the new locations, where they can establish reproductive populations. The risks of such introductions remain poorly resolved. We therefore surveyed bivalves ( oysters, mussels, and clams ) that are commercially available as seafood in the western United States. Twenty‐four of the 37 available marine and estuarine bivalve species are nonindigenous. Eleven of these 24 nonindigenous species have established, self‐sustaining populations in northeast Pacific environments. Three of the remaining 13 nonindigenous species have been introduced outside their natural ranges elsewhere in the world. We estimated the risks of some of these species being introduced by performing binomial probability analyses on these data. Our results suggest that there is a significant risk of introducing live seafood species into northeast Pacific ecosystems. Efforts to warn distributors and consumers to screen imported seafood species for invasiveness, to monitor estuaries and coastal ecosystems for early detection, and to develop rapid‐response plans for containing new invaders are warranted.

Biological Invasions: Recommendations for U.S. Policy and Management

“…For freshwater ecosystems, stocking (especially of fishes, Rahel 2002), the pet industry (Padilla and Williams 2004), the bait industry (Kolar and Lodge 2001), aquaculture (Cohen and Carlton 1998), and the live-food industry (Benson 1999, Fuller et al 1999) have been most harmful. The water-garden (Lodge et al 2000) and live-food (Chapman et al 2003, Rixon et al 2004 industries are growing rapidly and are therefore likely to be an increasing source of nonindigenous species. The water-garden, bait, and aquaculture industries are especially troublesome because they often put many nonindigenous species of plants and animals in close proximity to natural waterways and terrestrial ecosystems where the probability of escape and establishment is high (Les and Mehrhoff 1999).…”

Ornamental fish in pet stores in Greece: a threat to biodiversity?

“…Severe ecological impacts are evident on native species (Ceccherelli & Cinelli, 1997), whereas the extinction of native fish populations by predation and/or resource competition has also been documented (Pimentel, 2010). However, the aquarium trade has received lesser attention from environmentalists, conservationists, ecologists, and policy makers as opposed to the attention given to the trade of terrestrial endangered species (Naylor et al, 2001;Chapman et al, 2003;Padilla & Williams, 2004). This could be attributed to the established set of conservation priorities by international bodies, governments and the public's general views about the natural environment and accordingly their focus on 'flagship' species belonging to higher taxa primarily (i.e.…”

The Invasive Species Challenge in Estuarine and Coastal Environments: Marrying Management and Science

“…We define an introduced species as having been introduced outside its native range through human activities; invasive species are a subset that are likely to, or cause economic or ecological harm. Estuaries and coasts are particularly susceptible to introductions of nonnative species partly a consequence of being centers for the activities that represent the major vectors for introductions: shipping and boating (Carlton and Geller 1993;Ruiz et al 2000a); aquaculture (Naylor et al 2001); aquarium trade (Padilla and Williams 2004); live seafood and bait (Chapman et al 2003;Weigle et al 2005). Research has progressed from identifying new introductions and determining the origin and probable vector to addressing the ecological effects of the introductions (Ruiz et al 1999;Grosholz 2002).…”