Educational video about aquatic invasive species

[Soakedlontra]

Please fell free to share this video with your friends to increase awareness on how to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species.

Thank you very much!

[video=youtube;AUFmOPNb2cU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUFmOPNb2cU[/video]

( Northern Forest Canoe Trail's website: Aquatic Invasives - Northern Forest Canoe Trail)

 

[drbill]

Certainly an important issue and one we are facing a real dilemma with due to the introduction of the Asian sea weed Sargassum horneri in SoCal waters 10 years ago. It now overwhelms native species during most winters and has spread from the northern Channel Islands off Santa Barbara down to Guadalupe Island well offshore from Baja California, Mexico.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Certainly an important issue and one we are facing a real dilemma with due to the introduction of the Asian sea weed Sargassum horneri in SoCal waters 10 years ago. It now overwhelms native species during most winters and has spread from the northern Channel Islands off Santa Barbara down to Guadalupe Island well offshore from Baja California, Mexico.

I am wondering if commercial harvesting of this sea weed could help contain its spread...

 

[drbill]

Unfortunately at present no harvesting of it is allowed in our "marine protected areas" even though it is non-native and highly invasive

 

[Soakedlontra]

Unfortunately at present no harvesting of it is allowed in our "marine protected areas" even though it is non-native and highly invasive

Maybe it's time to reassess this rule...

Your example of the sargassum horneri and the non-harvesting rule reminds me of another frustrating situation that I heard when I was filming in Maine. A local owned a house on a lake shore where native aquatic plants, like water lilies etc, thrived. However, for this person those plants looked ugly and messy so she decided to pull them all out and guess what happened? After a while the non-native milfoil began to settle in and now the same area is choked with an aquatic invasive species that will probably spread all over the rest of this lake.