Invasive species News
|
Washington -
Andrew Wheeler, the head of the EPA, is worrying about climate change getting bad press. The National Climate Assessment, endorsed by Congress and 12 Federal agencies, is apparently part of the problem.
|
|
In a move that could hurt American and Canadian lobster fisheries, the European Union is conducting an extensive review of a proposal to ban lobsters imported from the U.S. and Canada.
|
|
Nothing is worse than going out to your garden and finding it has been eaten overnight by voracious five-inch brown and orange mottled slugs. But that is exactly what British gardeners are dealing with today — an invasion of Spanish slugs.
|
|
An international team of researchers has come up with a global assessment on how invasive alien species could spread in the 21st century due to increasing globalization and a changing climate.
|
|
Cape Coral -
The invasive and deadly New Guinea flatworm, first reported in Miami, Florida in June 2015, has now spread to the state's southwestern coast. Specimens of the land-dwelling predators have been found in Cape Coral.
|
|
Authorities in Michigan and Ontario, Canada are the latest to issue warnings on the dangers of a giant invasive plant that can cause severe burns and blindness in those unfortunate enough to tangle with it.
|
|
Paris -
The leafy villages west of Paris are finding themselves facing a serious immigration problem, but rather than illegal immigrants from North Africa, village residents are facing off against wallabies from the Land Down Under.
|
|
Thoughtless people in Alberta, Canada have created an environmental problem by flushing unwanted goldfish down their toilets. The invasive species has managed to survive and reproduce, some getting quite large.
|
|
Learning more about the home range and normal movement within the Burmese python's habitat will provide much needed information in controlling the invasive species in the Everglades national Park in Florida, according to a new study by the USGS.
|
|
Monk parakeets, also called Quaker parrots, began invading Europe and North America about 40 or 50 years ago. While the global spread of this delightful parrot is amazing, they all appear to have originated from one area of South America.
|
|
Boulder -
Apparently tired of their goldfish, someone several years ago dumped them into Boulder, Colorado's Teller Lake #5, thinking it was more humane than flushing them down the toilet. Today, the lake is home to almost 4,000 descendants of those goldfish.
|
|
The European fire ant is an unwanted invasive species in Eastern North America. It has taken over back yards and is capable of a very nasty bite. This ant is a seed disperser, and research has shown they could wreck havoc on our native ecosystems.
|
|
Antarctica is the world's last great wilderness, a continent covering 5.4 million square miles, or about twice the size of Australia, Antarctica belongs to no one nation, and there is no government, other than an international agreement.
|
|
Invasive species control costs the economy of Ontario tens of millions of dollars annually. The impact these foreign invaders make on the ecology and the environment is often irreparable, if not irreversible. Ontario is doing something about the problem.
|
|
Asian carp were imported to the United States in the 1970's to control algae in aquaculture ponds. But much like the mongoose that was imported to the Hawaii islands to control rats, the carp proliferated and are now an invasive, nuisance species.
|
|
Sydney -
The Australian Irukandji jellyfish is the most venomous creature on Earth. Its appearance in places as far apart as Cape Town and Florida isn’t good news . Unlike other jellyfish, this species is a real environmental hazard.
|
|
An Oregon man was fishing in Maryland's Potomac River waters and caught a huge blue catfish, its size was a record-setter in the state.
|
|
The nasty snakehead fish, or Frankenfish, will soon be against the law to bring into the Canadian province of British Columbia. The plan to ban the fishes import comes on the heels of the removal of one from a Burnaby lagoon.
|
|
Geneva -
A new report on honey bee and pollinator decline indicates a “sixth major extinction” of biological diversity is currently underway, caused by habitat loss, pollution, pest invasion, and disease, leading to ecosystem havoc vital to human livelihood.
|
|
New Orleans -
Can fashion fur ever be guilt free? Apparently yes, but only if you are wearing swamp rat. A project in Louisiana is turning the invasive species nutria into high fashion.
|
|
Pittsburgh -
A University of Arkansas researcher has found genetically modified canola growing wild in Dakota -- in addition, she found two different GM varieties had interbred to produce a completely new GM canola.
|
|
Whether plants, animals, or fungi, invasive alien species appear to be on some kind of massive move. In Europe alone some 11,000 alien invasive species have been identified. The question is why, and why now?
|
|
An algae that forms a gobby, gooey mess is acting like the central feature of the 1950s horror flick “The Blob,” slowly spreading around the world, choking the life out of many pristine waterways. Experts say there is no way to control or eradicate it
|
|
A study published in the March 2009 issue of BioScience concludes that nonindigenous species pose a threat to native salmonids.
|
|
For ants, supercolonies are a huge evolutionary step. These are virtually immortal colonies, ant “civilizations”. These colonies contain multiple queens, and millions of workers. They also destroy native ant species, and trash ecologies.
|
|
The New Zealand mud snail currently inhabits four of the five Great Lakes and is now spreading into rivers and tributaries,
|
|
French scientists have done a study to identify the invaders. The numbers are big, and getting bigger. On average, 19 new species of invertebrate enter Europe every year. In the middle of the 20th century, it was 10 a year.
|
|
In the past 18 months, more than 800 swamphens have been killed in an effort to control their numbers in the Everglades. The numbers of swamphens are competing heavily with the Everglades own indigenous birds as well as ruining the natural habitat.
|
apis-397127 apis-315275 apis-315091 apis-314107 apis-312194 apis-310453 apis-279826 apis-276191 apis-271810 apis-271423 apis-269341 apis-260731 apis-243281 apis-230605 apis-224649 apis-213412 apis-185460 apis-178678 apis-153244 apis-149413 apis-143507 apis-140648 apis-140466 apis-116205 apis-111363 apis-107122 apis-100564 apis-88683
Invasive species Image
A juvenile cane toad. Bidgee
The comb-jellyfish called Mnemiopsis that has contributed to fisheries collapses in the Black Sea. Ro Allen
Spanish Slug (Arion vulgaris). Photo taken in Spain May 31, 2014. Bernard Dupont from France
A fisherman caught 20 Prussian carp while fishing the Bow River in Alberta. Knowing they are an invasive species, turned them over to provincial biologists for study. YouTube
Adult grass carp. Dezidor
Silver carp jumping out of the water after being startled. Tennessee National Wildlife Federation
Cane toad caught in the light. Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory. Matt from Melbourne, Au.
Cobia, Rachycentron canadum, on ice NOAA
Just a handful of the 40 goldfish removed from a Fort McMurray stormpond in 2015. According to the province, some were as large as dinner plates. Rebecca Baldwin / Alberta Environment and Parks
Invading predatory cercopagids, spiny water fleas, that have invaded the Great Lakes in ballast water. Bythotrephes invaded Lake Michigan in 1986. Cercopagis invaded lake Ontario and Lake Michigan in 1999. Arrows point to the thoracopods (feeding appendages). NOAA
European fire ant Myrmica rubra. Aiwok
A boat propeller engulfed by quagga mussels. Along with Zebra mussels, they have spread through parts of Canada and the U.S. National Park Service
Juvenile Arion vulgaris from Lower Austria. Zwentibold
Cane toad caught in the light. Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory. Matt from Melbourne, Au.
Invasive species are encroaching on ecosystems all over the world.
In Australia, pet aquarium fish are being dumped in rivers where they damage unique local ecosystems by growing up to twenty times their regular size. PatrynWorldLatestNews
The Government of Alberta created the AIS Program, which focuses on the prevention and management of these species. Alberta Emerald Foundation
Silver carp can jump as high as 8 to 10 feet out of the water when frightened or disturbed by boat motors. Screen grab
Close-up of the invasive golden mussel, which proliferates quickly and densely, clogging up power plants, waterworks and destroying ecosystems. : Marcela Uliano da Silva
Zebra mussel shells along the shore of Lake Michigan. Screen grab
Electrofishing for the Asian carp, an invasive species. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
|
|
