Sea Sqirt Invasion in Puget Sound

Biologist say that tunicates or 'sea squirts' are invading the puget sound at an alarming rate and threatening to take over from native species.

Officials say that tunicates can coat underwater sea habitats in slime and smother sea creatures including shellfish and other species that are so imortant to us as consumers. One kind of tunicate has covered New England's Georges Bank, a massive underwater shelf in the Atlantic Ocean, in 88 square miles of slime. A $250,000 dollar price tag as come with cleaning up the invading 'slimates' and the governer is asking for more to clean up the mess that they leave. So I wonder why these creatures are invading? What is missing that kept them out before? Can we eat them? Can we use them for any kind of medical purposes? Maybe to make paint or ink or some other type of consumer product. What good can we take from such an invasive creature?