Posted by . on May 07, 2001 at 07:10:30:
Divers Hunt Creeping Peril
http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/bln/nmkiller7.html
By Lee Peterson
A team of scuba divers will soon start searching local harbors and marinas for a fast-growing marine plant dubbed “killer algae” for its ability to overtake and smother native species.
The survey area includes Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach's King Harbor and the Port of Los Angeles. The project is part of a multiagency search-and-destroy mission against what biologists see as a major environmental threat to marine life.
The “Caulerpa taxifolia” algae, native to the tropics, is a scourge in more temperate waters where a piece only a millimeter in size can quickly spread across the seafloor, strangling seaweed and sea grass important to local ecosystems.
It was found last year in a lagoon in Carlsbad and the marina at Huntington Harbour in Orange County.
“It's extremely invasive and it is very competitive. It outcompetes any other naturally occurring algae,” said Bill Paznokas, marine biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game.
Although not harmful to humans, Caulerpa is toxic to fish that normally feed on marine plants, biologists said.
Locally, it could overtake eel grass, which is important habitat for juvenile fish and lobster, said Paznokas.
The worst known case of a Caulerpa infestation is the northern Mediterranean Sea, where it has smothered the ocean floor from Monaco to Croatia.
In California, officials hope to nip Caulerpa in the bud. That's why biologists have undertaken a program to isolate the organism and treat it with chlorine bleach.
The Caulerpa on the loose in Southern California is thought to be a particularly hardy mutant clone of the organism, possibly introduced into the environment when it was dumped from someone's saltwater aquarium, said Bob Hoffman, Southern California environmental coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
A multiagency task force has reached out to aquarium hobbyists to alert them to the problem and is asking recreational scuba divers to report where they have and have not seen the Caulerpa.
But the main thrust is the upcoming survey by professional divers, who will look at the most likely harbors and other sheltered areas where the algae might have taken root.
The reason for the quick and aggressive response is that this is one invasive marine species that there is a chance of stopping, scientists said.
“In the Mediterranean, most of the scientists consider it an ecological disaster,” said Susan Williams, director of University of California, Davis' Bodega Marine Laboratory.
Williams compared the way Caulerpa overtakes native species on the sea floor with how invasive bamboo replaces a natural rain forest.
For the animals who need to eat native species to live, it's like replacing wheat fields with poison ivy, she said.
“Southern California is not the only place that we might expect it,” said Williams, a professor in environmental science and policy who did her doctoral research on Caulerpa. “It tolerates conditions that we might expect it going into Oregon.”
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