Invasive species ride tsunami debris to US shore

The Jakarta Post - 

When a floating dock the size of a boxcar washed up on a sandy beach in Oregon, beachcombers got excited because it was the largest piece of debris from last year's tsunami in Japan to show up on the United States West Coast.

But scientists worried it represented a whole new way for invasive species of seaweed, crabs and other marine organisms to break the earth's natural barriers and further muck up the West Coast's marine environments.

And more invasive species could be hitching rides on tsunami debris expected to arrive in the weeks and months to come.

'We know extinctions occur with invasions,' said Assistant Professor of fisheries and invasive species John Chapman at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Centre.

 

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