PORTAL Baseline Survey

PORT surveys of ALien organisms introduced by ships

Coordinator:

Bella Galil

National Institute of Oceanography, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research
Haifa, Israel
Fax: +972 48 51 59 11

The advent and spread of alien species in the Mediterranean Sea were repeatedly discussed in CIESM forums over the past three decades, and it was widely perceived that the littoral and infralittoral biota of the sea is undergoing a rapid and profound change.

It is estimated that about 220,000 vessels of more than 100 tonnes cross the Mediterranean annually, carrying 30% of the international sea borne trade volume, and 20% of the petroleum. With some 2000 merchant ships plying the Mediterranean at all times, the sea is exceptionally susceptible to ship-transported bioinvasions, whether by fouling or ballast. Introductions brought about by shipping were the focus of a multidisciplinary CIESM workshop held in 2002 that examined the extant knowledge of the scale and impact of ship-transported aliens in the Mediterranean and Black sea region (CIESM workshop monographs, n° 20). The recommendations that emerged from the workshop called for implementing a Mediterranean-wide program of port and port-proximate surveys using standardized protocols to identify alien species and organisms that pose significant risk to human health that might be disseminated by shipping from the region. CIESM wishes to implement those recommendation by inviting scientists to participate in the first basin-wide port-survey program.

While recognizing that only a spatially and temporally comprehensive survey is likely to detect all alien species, scientific, logistic and cost constraints necessarily restrict the survey’s scope. CIESM thus adopted a targeted survey strategy that provides a cost-effective approach to the collection of baseline data on alien species of targeted phyla (bryozoans, serpulids, hydroids, ascidians, mollusks and barnacles) inhabiting port and port-proximate manmade hard-substrates and organisms that pose significant risk to human health that might be disseminated by shipping from Mediterranean ports (Vibrio cholerae).

In order to develop effective evaluations the targeted survey will consist of a minimum suite of requirements that include a uniform sampling design, sampling methods and information registration; identification of material to species level verified by taxonomic experts; and placement of identified material in an appropriate collection (e.g., national institute, museum, university). Assuming that the likelihood of finding shipping-transported alien species is highest near their point of inoculation, sampling will concentrate on habitats and sites in the port and adjacent areas.

Within ports, active berths, inactive wharves and channel markers have the highest detected percentage of alien species (Hewitt and Martin, 2001), and thus were chosen as priority sampling sites.

The survey methods of port and port-proximate manmade hard substrate follow the CRIMP protocols for baseline port surveys for alien species developed by Hewitt and Martin (1996), updated (Hewitt and Martin, 2001), and later adopted by Globallast.

Fourteen sites have been sampled. The data, consisting of the sorted and identified material and site port data, is inserted into a purposely-developed common database. It is the objective of PORTAL to build and strengthen the cooperation among scientists from CIESM constituent countries and beyond, by reinforce capacity and identifying the needs of regional and national environmental and management systems, in preparation for strategic objectives.

Project chronology

December 2003: official beginning of PORTAL. Participants were invited to discuss the protocols of sample collection and specimen handling. A short Demonstration Video was mailed to participants.

December 2003-December 2004: sampling, sorting, identification.

June 2004: a roundtable session at the CIESM congress, Barcelona, where preliminary results were presented to the Mediterranean community, and additional participants joined the project. A lively discussion session, that lasted well beyond the allotted time, followed the presentations. The enthusiastic ‘standing room only’ crowd showered the participants with questions and suggestions.

December 2004: the CIESM PORTAL database template prepared by Greg Ruiz and Brian Steves was sent to participants.

Autumn 2005: a strategic meeting will assess the main research objectives and taxonomic focus of the next phase of the program.

Preliminary results

Lisa Drake, who carefully analysed all the Vibrio samples, found Vibrio cholerae 01 in the Taranto samples, and both 01 and 0139 in Livorno, Messina and Venice! She is confident that the other samples were truly negative. She used the DFA method, but checked the results using a different kit, in addition to using colonies grown up from unfixed samples. Helmut Zibrowius, was very disappointed with the serpulid samples sent him and identified no new alien serpulids from the samples sent him – “just a few species from those that can be expected to occur in that harbour environment” – including “old time established [exotoc] ones or in the Levant now common species from the Indo-Pacific”. Nando Boero identified Diphasia margareta, an “Atlantic” hydroid living on barnacles and lacking medusae, occasionally recorded from the Mediterranean – possibly a shipping-transported species. Alfonso Ramos considers Microcosmus squamifer identified from Livorno alien to the Mediterranean, as well as Ascidia cf. savigni and Phallusia nigra – both Erythrean species found in the Israeli samples. Francis Kerckhof identified Balanus reticulatus from the Haifa Port buoy sample – half a century after its first record in the Mediterranean from virtually the same locality! There is no doubt it is a shipping-transported species as it was described by Zibrowius from a ship’s hull in Toulon (Zibrowius, 1979). This species is “apparently spreading in other regions too….. in some cases may be at the cost of [Balanus] amphitrite.” Anna Occhipinti-Ambrogi identified the widely invasive amphipod Caprella scaura in the Livorno samples. Fernando Rubino has identified in the samples seven species of dinoflagellates new the Mediterranean , in addition to 12 new regional records.

Milvana Arko-Pijevac, Rijeka harbor, Croatia

Enric Ballestros, Barcelona harbor, Spain

Jamila Ben Souissi, Rades, Skhira, Zarzis harbors, Tunisia

Ferdinando Boero (Hydroid expert), Italy

Chariton Chintiroglou, Thessaloniki harbor, Greece

Melih Ertan Cinar, Izmir harbor, Turkey

Salud Deudero, Palma de Mallorca marina, Spain

Lisa Drake (analysis of Vibrio cholerae samples), USA

Francis Kerckhof (Barnacle expert), Belgium

Teresa Maugeri, Messina harbor, Italy

Anna Occhipinti-Ambrogi, Venice harbor, Italy

Alfonso Ramos (Ascidian expert), Spain

Fernando Rubino (analysis of sediment for dinoflagellate cysts), Taranto harbor, Italy

Greg Ruiz , USA

Brian Steves (sampling design and methods, databasing)

Patrick Schembri, Valetta harbor, Malta

Marco Vannini, Livorno harbor, Italy

Helmut Zibrowius (Serpulid expert), France

Hewitt Ch.L. and R.B. Martin, 1996. Port surveys for introduced marine species – background considerations and sampling protocols. CRIMP Technical Report No 4. CSIRO Division of Fisheries, Hobart. 40 pp.

Hewitt Ch.L. and R.B. Martin, 2001. Revised protocols for baseline port surveys for introduced marine species: survey design, sampling protocols and specimen handling. CRIMP Technical Report No 22. CSIRO Division of Fisheries, Hobart. 46 pp.

Zibrowius H., 1979. Serpulidae (Annelida Polychaeta) de l’ocean Indien arrivés sur des coques de bateaux à Toulon (France, Méditerranée). Rapp. Comm. Int. Mer Medit., 25/26(4): 133-134.