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Christian Mehlfuehrer / UC Davis
The highly invasive lionfish is easily available through aquarium and internet sales and represents a potential threat for California waters, according to a new report.
By John Roach, NBC News Digital
Exotic and colorful aquarium fish, such as those made famous by the Disney film "Finding Nemo," are escaping to the open ocean in real life and disrupting marine ecosystems, according to a new report on the spread of invasive species.
More than 11 million non-native aquarium fish and plants — from tropical fish to seaweed and snails, representing 102 species — are imported annually through the California ports of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the report found.
Of those, 13 species have been introduced to California marine waters, most likely because they were released from aquariums. More than two thirds successfully made a home for themselves in California.
The number of introduced invasive aquarium species is relatively low compared to those released via other means, such as ballast water released from ship hulls, but aquarium fish are grown to be hardy and robust, which makes them highly successful when they reach foreign waters.
"The aquarium trade species tend to be really bad actors," Susan Williams, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California at Davis, told NBC News. "We believe that that is in part due to the fact that they have to be so hardy to be able to survive the trade."
Williams is the lead author of the new report, one of six on the various ways marine invasive species are spread. It was prepared for the California Ocean Protection Council, a government agency. The results, she said, can be generalized to the rest of the world.
The problem of aquarium fish in marine ecosystems has been studied for several years, including work done more than a decade ago by Williams. What’s new here is that the researchers, for the first time, were able to examine data from U.S. Fish and Wildlife inspections, not just what was reported.
The data, in turn, will allow robust comparisons across the other ways invasive species are spread, such as ships and fish farms, and inform agencies on how best to combat the problem.
The new report focused on the killer algae Caulerpa and predatory lionfish, two well-known trouble makers in the aquarium trade. The algae, for example, infected two lagoons in Southern California in 2000 and cost $6 million to eradicate.
Lionfish were introduced to Florida in 1999 and spread throughout the Caribbean and up the East Coast by 2010. They are not yet in California waters, but are able to withstand cooler temperatures and if introduced could establish themselves in San Francisco bay, and further north as waters continue to warm.
"Lionfish are voracious predators in their native habitats, and in their invaded habitat any predator is a potential threat to the native ecosystem," Williams said.
Other aquarium trade species of particular concern include the ever popular green chromis, a damselfish that is being imported through California in large numbers. Even though they are not predators, damselfish are aggressive toward other fish, Williams said.
Preventing the spread of aquarium fish "is not rocket science," she said. Simple measures such as passing out brochures with proper disposal instructions at pet stores would help. Currently, this is not a widespread practice, she added.
"If people were just aware that they shouldn’t dump their aquariums in any natural waters," she said, "that goes a long way to averting this problem."
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. To learn more about him, check out his website.
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Having used to work in the reef aquarium industry, I can't stress this enough. It's really hard to blame the ignorance of the fish owner when they don't have a rudimentary understanding of how a foreign fish can have an effect on its ecology. Just look at the Snakehead fish in the Great Lakes region and look at the problem its causing. Furthermore, hybridization of compatible species could also lead to potentially harmful results. If one species of, say, Cichlid is released into the wild that is rather aggressive, and it ends up hybridizing with another hardy species of Discus or Cichlid that is resistant to certain types of parasites, it could lead to eradication of other fish in its niche.
Granted genetic variance and hybridization can occur naturally, but we're creating systems and opportunities for these things to happen in places that it would have never occurred with no thought to what the effects might be. It makes it especially difficult when bringing a fish with you to move to a new residence is not possible, and your young child doesn't want you to euthanize it and says "let it go free by flushing it" or "just let it go in the river/lake."
I have answered too many phone calls from people who bought a young shark for a 200 gallon aquarium only to find out it outgrew it and they did't know what to do. They thought they'd be able to donate/sell it to a larger aquarium park like the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific or Sea World only to find out they won't take it. So they end up trying to release it into the ocean.
I know it's impossible to try and educate people on these things when it falls so low on a person's priority list compared to other troubles, but I wish fish stores would advocate greater education of their customers instead of trying to sell that one shark pup they got from a recent haul.
I'll go a step farther. There should be one simple rule for any animal or plant - if it isn't native to your area, you can't have it. The number of foreign animals (Japanese beetles, Ash borer, zebra mussels, Asian carp to name a few) as well as foreign plants (names of which I can't think of at the moment) in my home state of Missouri is unbelievable. We have pythons all over Florida now. We have lionfish in the gulf coast.
Even things like mint and dill have established in areas that they are not native, but at least there is a reason for herb culivation. But having an animal just to have it or a plant because it looks good in your yard is not justification for the environmental inpacts these things are causing...
What if they could be sterilized so they couldn't breed?
From your toilet direct to the Ocean - This is modern, third world Sewage treatment -
Three cheers for America! !
So you're telling me that a salt-water fish that if you blink sideways in an aquarium will die in a flash - but can survive being flushed into a "fresh" water sewage system full of feces and urine and other detritus until it reaches the ocean miles and miles and miles and miles away?
Uh huh. Sure.
Guess I'll have to start pooping in my aquarium to assure my fish's survival, then.
Yes, it's preposterous. But I think most people think that releasing the fish into the ocean once they can't have or don't want an aquarium anymore is best for the fish. They don't get that the ecosystems are different. They think all the ocean is one big happy family.
I wish they would ban certain fishes,also advise the public
Supposed to be no Asian Carp in the Great Lakes, but fishermen report seeing them.
So the title of this piece is completely misleading. The article doesn't even mention flushing fish down the toilet, there's no mention of clown fish, which is what Nemo is, and even if you did flush a fish down the toilet, it will NEVER end up in the ocean anyway.