ANGFA Queensland

Original story by Sunanda Creagh at The Conversation

Marine scientists at the Australian Museum have sounded the alarm over an invasive underwater worm discovered in Sydney’s Botany Bay — the farthest north the pest has ever been spotted in NSW.

Australian Museum scientists have discovered an invasive species of worm in Botany Bay – the European Fanworm (Sabella spallanzanii), which is native to the Mediterranean Sea and European Atlantic coast. Photo: Australian Museum

The European Fanworm (Sabella spallanzanii), a sea-dwelling relative of the earthworm, is native to the Mediterranean Sea and the European Atlantic but has already invaded much of southern coastal Australia. It was first spotted in Australia in 1965.

The worm, which can approach 50cm long, lives in a tube that attaches to rocks and boats and uses its elaborate, fan-shaped head to filter water for food. It reproduces rapidly, and can quickly crowd out native species.

“It does affect the overall food chain, and if you took it to the extreme it could impact on native commercial species or recreational species of fish,” said Stephen Keable, Collection Manager, Marine Invertebrates at Australian Museum.

Dr Keable, who was among the scientists who found European Fanworms during a routine dive to collect specimens in Botany Bay in March, said trying to stop the pest by picking them off was an uphill battle.

“One individual can have up to 50,000 eggs. You can imagine that, like the Crown of Thorns star fish, they can reproduce incredibly rapidly. It’s a needle in a haystack to try and find them. It only takes a few mature worms to survive and establish the population all over again,” he said.

The Australian Museum alerted the NSW Department of Primary Industries to their disconcerting find, and experts from both agencies are working on a plan to determine the extent of the pest’s spread.

Dense carpets of worms

Pat Hutchings, Senior Principal Research Scientist at Australian Museum and an expert on marine worms, said the European Fanworms in other parts of Australia have formed a dense carpet across stretches of sea bed, completely changing the marine ecology and leaving no food for other species.

“They have really large feeding crowns and they basically just filter the entire water column. Nothing gets past them. Underneath them, it’s like a desert,” she said.

“The worms we found in Botany Bay weren’t big, so we are quite certain we have not found the main population of those worms in Sydney.”

European Fanworms are likely to have hitched a ride to Australia on the hulls of ships that have sailed from Europe, she said.

“What this highlights on Botany Bay is that we need to be more diligent about the cleaning of boats, including all the nooks and crannies and chains,” said Dr Hutchings.

“It’s not very easy getting rid of marine pests. Think of the amount of money spent on trying to eradicate cane toads or rabbits. Well, at least you can see them on land. It’s not so easy underwater.”

The scientists will discuss their findings and other invasive species at the 11th International Polychaete Conference, to be held in Sydney from August 4 and at an invasive pest workshop being held at the Australian Museum on August 1 and 2.

This article was originally published at The Conversation.
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Original story by Liam Parsons, The Cairns Post

AUTHORITIES are still trying to confirm reports of a highly invasive fish species in one of Cape York’s most pristine rivers.

Officers from Fisheries Queensland are yet to travel to the remote Jackson River, north of Weipa, to investigate whether the tilapia has spread north.

Mozambique Tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus – a noxious pest fish

The freshwater fish is listed as one of the world’s 100 worst introduced pest species and can be found throughout Cairns, Lake Tinaroo and in the Wet Tropics.

Tilapia can cause havoc in waterways due to its tendency to eat the eggs of other fish and drive away native species.

John Charlton, who runs fishing charter company Cape York Adventures, said he had been inundated by calls and emails from people concerned about the fish’s presence on Cape York.

“It would be like finding cane toads on Lizard Island,” he said. “These rivers are pristine and run all year around, they support a lot of fragile life and species.”

James Cook University Adjunct Principal Research Fellow Geoff McPherson, a former Fisheries Queensland worker who has studied the behaviour of tilapia, said more sophisticated methods were needed to detect and manage them.

Mr McPherson has monitored the tilapia in Centennial Lakes in Cairns, where it is deeply entrenched. He said there had been success interstate and overseas using amplified noise underwater to disrupt the breeding patterns and to help trap invasive fish.

“We found we could utilise the sounds and use them against the fish themselves,” he said.

A Fisheries Queensland spokeswoman said the department was yet to receive photos confirming tilapia in the Jackson River.Sightings should be reported with a clear photograph and location details to Fisheries Queensland on13 25 23 or at the website fisheries.qld.gov.au

Biosecurity Queensland has confirmed that a serious exotic weed, red witchweed (Striga asiatica), has been found near Mackay.

Mature plant with roots parasitizing maize. Photo: D. L. Nickren

Samples were collected and have been identified by the Queensland Herbarium.

While the weed has been confirmed on one property, information to date suggests that the infestation may be on a small number of other properties in the immediate area.

The affected property is being placed under movement restrictions which means no equipment, soil or plant material is allowed to be moved on or off the property without approval.

While our priority is to minimise the biosecurity risks, we will continue to work with the owner to ensure some business continuity.

Biosecurity Queensland has established a response program including a local control centre in Mackay.

Potentially affected plant industries have been notified and Biosecurity Queensland is working with industry representatives to provide information to producers.

We are urging producers to check their crops and report anything they suspect could be red witchweed.

Producers are urged to report any suspect weeds to Biosecurity Queensland on
13 25 23.

Further information on red witchweed is available from www.daff.qld.gov.au 

For producers who suspect they have red witchweed:

1. Report the plant immediately to Biosecurity Queensland on 13 25 23.

2. Take photos of the infestation and store until you are contacted by Biosecurity Queensland.

Leaves linear to about 4 cm long. Photo: D. L. Nickrent

3. Do not attempt to remove any flowering plants, as this may allow the weed to spread tiny, dust-like seeds.

4. Don’t move any soil or machinery or products (including mulch) that might contain soil off-site. This will help avoid spread of seeds to other properties.

5. Seeds are tiny and can easily drop into the soil, enabling its spread. Therefore, keep the weed in place until Biosecurity Queensland can investigate. 

More information about red witchweed

Red witchweed is a root parasite that is exotic to Australia and affects the production of sugarcane and cereal crops by depriving them of water and nutrients.

This is the first confirmed detection of red witchweed in Australia.

Red witchweed is a prescribed pest under the Plant Protection Act 1989 and all exotic Striga species are declared Class 1 pests under the Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002.

More information

For more information on red witchweed, visit www.daff.qld.gov.au or call 13 25 23.

Follow Biosecurity Queensland on Facebook and Twitter (@BiosecurityQld).

Media release from Oregon State University

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Last month, the first expedition to use a deep-diving submersible to study the Atlantic Ocean lionfish invasion found something very disturbing – at 300 feet deep, there were still significant populations of these predatory fish, and they were big.

Big fish in many species can reproduce much more efficiently than their younger, smaller counterparts, and lionfish are known to travel considerable distances and move to various depths. This raises significant new concerns in the effort to control this invasive species that is devastating native fish populations on the Atlantic Coast and in the Caribbean Sea.

The submersible “Antipodes” was used off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale to study the lionfish invasion plaguing that region. Photo: of Oregon State University

“We expected some populations of lionfish at that depth, but their numbers and size were a surprise,” said Stephanie Green, the David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow in the College of Science at Oregon State University, who participated in the dives. OSU has been one of the early leaders in the study of the lionfish invasion.

“This was kind of an ‘Ah hah!’ moment,” she said. “It was immediately clear that this is a new frontier in the lionfish crisis, and that something is going to have to be done about it. Seeing it up-close really brought home the nature of the problem.”

OSU participated in this expedition with researchers from a number of other universities, in work supported by Nova Southeastern University, the Guy Harvey Foundation, NOAA, and other agencies. The five-person  submersible “Antipodes” was provided by OceanGate, Inc., and it dove about 300 feet deep off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., near the “Bill Boyd” cargo ship that was intentionally sunk there in 1986 to create an artificial reef for marine life.

That ship has, in fact, attracted a great deal of marine life, and now, a great number of lionfish. And for that species, they are growing to an unusually large size – as much as 16 inches.

Lionfish are seen swimming near the doorway on this sunken ship, the Bill Boyd, with the image taken from the submersible Antipodes. Photo: Oregon State University

Lionfish are a predatory fish that’s native to the Pacific Ocean and were accidentally introduced to Atlantic Ocean waters in the early 1990s, and there became a voracious predator with no natural controls on its population. An OSU study in 2008 showed that lionfish in the Atlantic have been known to reduce native fish populations by up to 80 percent.

Eradication appears impossible, and they threaten everything from coral reef ecosystems to local economies that are based on fishing and tourism.

Whatever is keeping them in check in the Pacific – and researchers around the world are trying to find out what that is – is missing here. In the Caribbean, they are found at different depths, in various terrain, are largely ignored by other local predators and parasites, and are rapidly eating their way through entire ecosystems. They will attack many other species and appear to eat constantly.

And, unfortunately, the big fish just discovered at greater depths pose that much more of a predatory threat, not to mention appetite.

“A lionfish will eat almost any fish smaller than it is,” Green said. “Regarding the large fish we observed in the submersible dives, a real concern is that they could migrate to shallower depths as well and eat many of the fish there. And the control measures we’re using at shallower depths – catch them and let people eat them – are not as practical at great depth.”

Size does more than just increase predation.  In many fish species, a large, mature adult can produce far more offspring that small, younger fish. A large, mature female in some species can produce up to 10 times as many offspring as a fish that’s able to reproduce, but half the size.

Trapping is a possibility for removing fish at greater depth, Green said, and could be especially effective if a method were developed to selectively trap lionfish and not other species. Work on control technologies and cost effectiveness of various approaches will continue at OSU, she said.

Lionfish (Pterois volitans)

When attacking another fish, a lionfish uses its large, fan-like fins to herd smaller fish into a corner and then swallow them in a rapid strike. Because of their natural defense mechanisms they are afraid of almost no other marine life, and will consume dozens of species of the tropical fish and invertebrates that typically congregate in coral reefs and other areas. The venom released by their sharp spines can cause extremely painful stings to humans.

Aside from the rapid and immediate mortality of marine life, the loss of herbivorous fish will also set the stage for seaweed to potentially overwhelm the coral reefs and disrupt the delicate ecological balance in which they exist.

This newest threat follows on the heels of overfishing, sediment deposition, nitrate pollution in some areas, coral bleaching caused by global warming, and increasing ocean acidity caused by carbon emissions. Lionfish may be the final straw that breaks the back of Western Atlantic and Caribbean coral reefs, some researchers believe.