Birds on the Brain

The fear, researchers say, is the species that arrive on debris from Japan may colonize along the West Coast, which has been most vulnerable to invasive species brought here in the ballast water of ships, as well as by other mechanisms….

Chapman said some of the species that have the most potential for successful invasion are the Northern Pacific seastar (Asterias amurensis), the Japanese shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus), and a species of brown algae (Undaria pinnatifida), which had covered the dock, which was 66 feet long, 19 feet wide and seven feet high.

Gayle Hansen, an OSU botany and plant pathology specialist, is working with Hiroshi Kawai from Kobe University in Japan on further identification of algal species, and the OSU scientists are also working with Jim Carlton of Williams College to find taxonomic experts to help with identification.

Other organisms aboard the dock include at least eight species of mollusk, an anemone, a sponge, an oyster, a solitary tunicate, a granular claw crab, three or more species of amphipods, four or more species of barnacles and worms, bryozoans, a European blue mussel known as Mytilus galloprovincialis, and a sea urchin.