Deep Sea Invation!!!!!! PBS

[papaeph]

This board has helped me time and time again; but i just feel compeled to make sure we all know the possible consiquences of our harvesting of Caulerpa. After watching this special last night on PBS (East Coast) I was shocked to learn that a simple marine hobiest triggered such a epedemic...
We all share such a common love of the ocean, so please take the time and visit the below site...
The site will better describe the situation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/algae/
This was taken off of PBS website....
Bred for its beauty, fast growth, and tolerance for cold, the "aquarium strain" of Caulerpa taxifolia, a bright green seaweed with fernlike fronds that is used to decorate saltwater aquariums, "escaped" from human control in the 1980s and has spread like a cancer through the Mediterranean, overwhelming native species and habitats. In this time line, written by Alexandre Meinesz, the marine biologist who has fought for years to warn authorities in France and elsewhere of this growing menace, follow the disquieting trajectory of this "killer alga" as it colonizes new waters around the world. Unless otherwise noted, "the alga" and "C. taxifolia" refer to the aquarium strain.

 

[stuckinfla]

Here is the direct link to the chronology of this invasive "disease" so to speak. Its awful.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/algae/chronology.html

 

[dreuster]

Haha...I saw a that last night on KCET LA. Dang, reproduction via cloning sans the spores! RUUUUUUN!!!! I mean SWIIIIIMM!
Hopefully the introduction of the Caribbean Nudi will help.

 

[bang guy]

Are they really blaming that on hobbiests? Funny how hobbiests started it and yet it's clustered around the Cousteau Institute in Monaco.

 

[papaeph]

Ironically it started under Jacques Cousteau watch at Monaco and has spread around the Mediterranean via ship anchors; however there was an outbreak in southern California….

 

[bang guy]

From ship anchors or ballast perhaps? I'm not really one to lay blame but Aquarium hobbiests didn't do this I don't think. Just an opinion of course.

 

[harlequin]

We learned in my marine biology class last semester it was a French research facility which actually flushed it down the drain by mistake. It only takes a little bit of this stuff to survive and wreak havok, so much as a little piece of stem or blade. I am not so sure but I remember hearing something about it being banned from importation to the US.