Risk from marine invasive species
JAMES Nikitine, who founded Blue Cradle in 2020, said species of algae, mollusks and worms could travel around the world and “invade local ecosystems” by hitching a ride on the bottom of ships.
Mr Nikitine said the risk was higher now than before because of the “mind-boggling” number of container ships in the ocean.
“If invasive species enter foreign waters and have a drastic impact on say a pearl farm somewhere in French Polynesia the consequences would be in the hundreds of millions or even billions,” he said.
“As the waters warm, we are going to get more invasive species hitching a ride on ships, we are going to get probably more species settling from the tropical areas in the subtropical and temperate areas.
“It’s both being exacerbated by increased shipping traffic and it is also being exacerbated by the increased impacts of climate change.”
In New Zealand, Mr Nikitine said the mediterranean fan worm and the Asian seaweed, undaria pinnatifida, were both invasive species.
He said in French Polynesia, South African oysters were proliferating slowly.
While, in the Carribean, the Lionfish — a native species to the Indo-Pacific — had settled and become a pest. The region has taken to controlling its numbers by commercialising it, using the fish for food and parts of it as jewellery.
“Our strategy in the South Pacific will need to somehow potentially integrate some of those economic opportunities,” Mr Nikitine said.
“If you think of seaweed undaria, if it is settled are there ways that we can use these seaweeds for our own consumption or can we use them for alternative materials?”
He said invasive seaweed in French Polynesia was already being used as a fertiliser.
However, Mr Nikitine said the conversation could not become an economic one where certain species were encouraged to enter the ecosystem.
According to Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), marine ecosystems are affected by both marine and terrestrial invasive species.