Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. This non-native carpet sea squirt, Didemnum vexillum , D.
It was first detected in Whiting Harbor in as a result of a citizen-science-marine invasive species bioblitz. Based on growth of the sea squirt on Georges Bank on the east coast of the U. Managing marine ecosystems is a rare case for the BLM. There is concern that Pacific herring spawning beds in areas of the infestation could be vulnerable to the acidic outer skin of D.
The Whiting Harbor discovery represents a mile northward leap in distribution from other known occurrences of D. No other populations are known in Alaska. Lobes break off, drift away in the water column, and settle, thereby establishing new colonies. These characteristics make it highly invasive and make eradication especially challenging because it can be further spread by recreational boating, marine shipping, drifting on floating material algae, Styrofoam, debris, or buoys , in-water cleaning of infested boat hulls, or transfer of shellfish stock or aquaculture equipment.
The worst case is found in Georges Bank between Canada and the U. Nonetheless, the Whiting Harbor population lends itself to control. Because it is isolated, it is unlikely that additional larvae will recruit to the area from elsewhere, and currently it is at a manageable scale for eradication. Together, they developed a project around a goal to determine if a harbor-wide control treatment is a feasible means to eradicate invasive D. In , they conducted trial-run proof-of-concept experiments to test equipment and measure concentrations and duration of biocide compounds needed to cause mortality of D.
The Kestrel anchored outside of the known D. Researchers used GPS units to aid in navigating and diving to specific research areas. The divers set-up underwater domes to create a contained area where they could study the effects of biocide agents on the invasive D. Domes were secured to the seabed with anchor chain and sandbags to ensure a good seal to avoid gaps that could dilute the biocides and allow the biocide agents to escape. A different treatment went into each set of replicate domes, including salt, chlorine, and cement dust.
