ABSTRACT

The ecological and economic impacts of introduced marine species have attracted considerable recent attention. A substantial research effort is under way to prevent further introductions, study the spread of these invaders, and assess their effects on native organisms (Carlton and Geller, 1993). In some parts of heavily invaded ecosystems, exotics comprise over 90% of the biomass (Cohen and Carlton, 1998). However, unlike terrestrial and freshwater introduced pests, remarkably few attempts, with little evident success, have been made to control of marine pests once they have become established. Typically, news of their establishment engendered responses such as, “We will just have to learn to live with them.” Recently, this defeatist fatalism has been pierced by theoretical arguments, indicating that classical biological control may be possible in a marine environment (Lafferty and Kuris, 1996; Meinesz, 1999; Kuris and Lafferty, 2000), and by the development of sustained concerted research efforts to control or eradicate introduced marine pests. Notably, these include the green crab (Carcinus maenas) in North America and Tasmania, the sabellid worm pest of abalone (Terebrasabella heterouncinata) in California, the north Pacific starfish (Asterias amurensis) in Australia, and the alga (Caulerpa taxifolia) in the Mediterranean and California (Lafferty and Kuris, 1996; Thresher, 1997; Culver and Kuris, 1999; Kuris et al., 1996; Goggin, 1998; Meinesz and Thibaut, 1998: Meinesz, 1999; Thibaut and Meinesz, 2000). The establishment of the Centre for Research on Introduced Marine Pests (CRIMP) by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Marine Division in Australia, dedicated to the prevention, eradication, and control of non-indigenous marine species in Australia (Thresher and Martin 1995) has brought a sustained and coherent approach to these problems and raised them to a national priority.