The World In Your Oyster Bed

A new study published in the journal Oecologia reveals that California oyster beds are under attack from introduced species, including Atlantic snails and the European green crab.

Crabola

The Marine Invasions Research Lab is reporting that the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) has now been found in New Jersey, in two locations during the past month. They're also reporting additional new sightings of the crab along the Hudson River in New York. The press release is tucked away on the sidebar of their website as a pdf file, so I'm just going to paste the whole thing in here:

CHINESE MITTEN CRAB ALERT U.S. Atlantic Coast Bays & Rivers

New 2008 Reports: New Jersey & New York

Please Report Any Sightings of This Crab

Mitten Crabs in the Eastern U.S. Live Chinese Mitten Crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) have been found in Chesapeake Bay (2005-2007), Delaware Bay (2007), Hudson River (2007-2008), and most recently in New Jersey (2008). To date, there have been 19 crabs documented and confirmed in the eastern United States, including four states, all in the past four years.

In New Jersey, mitten crabs were found in Toms River (June 1, 2008) and Raritan Bay (June 17, 2008). The Toms River crab is the first confirmed record in the state of New Jersey. The male crab, measuring 50mm, was found crawling on a crab holding pen (peeler pot). The second crab caught in New Jersey was collected by a commercial waterman in the Raritan Bay near Keyport, NJ on June 17, 2008; it has been identified through pictures as an adult mitten crab, sex still unconfirmed. This crab apparently was not the waterman’s first catch, as the species was reportedly observed in the same area at least weekly for the three weeks prior to this catch.

Also in 2008, four other mitten crabs were captured in the Hudson River, New York, including one female (20mm on June 3) and three males (16-26mm from June 9 to July 18). All crabs were caught in freshwater near Tivoli, NY, approximately 100 miles inland along the Hudson River by a research scientist, who was studying eel movement on local tributaries. A total of seven mitten crabs have been confirmed for Hudson River to date.

The Chinese Mitten Crab is native to East Asia, and could have negative ecological and economic impacts. Mitten Crabs are already established invaders in Europe and on the West Coast of the United States. We don’t yet know whether the crab has established reproductive populations in the eastern U.S. The crab is listed as Injurious Wildlife under the Federal Lacey Act, which makes it illegal in the United States to import, export, or conduct interstate commerce of Mitten Crabs without a permit.

Life History. The Chinese Mitten Crab occurs in both freshwater and saltwater. Young crabs spend two-five years in freshwater tributaries and can extend many miles upstream of bays and estuaries. Mature male and female crabs migrate downstream to mate and spawn in saltwater estuaries. Chinese Mitten Crabs burrow into banks and levees along estuaries and are able to leave the water to walk around obstacles while migrating.

Please Report Any New Sightings. To determine the status, abundance, and distribution of this species along the eastern U.S., we have established a Mitten Crab Network. The Network began as a partnership among several state, federal, and research organizations, with an initial focus on Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. We have now expanded the Network to include resource managers, commercial fishermen, research organizations, and citizens along the eastern U.S. Please help by reporting any mitten crabs directly to the Network or to your state resource manager.

Identification

• Commonly found in fresh waters of North America, but can occur in saltwater bays and estuaries
• Claws equal in size with white tips and appear furry (with thick mats of hair-like covering on claws)
• If you find a crab, with a carapace length over one inch and no hair on the claws, it is NOT likely to be a Mitten Crab. NOTE: Juveniles under one inch may not have hair on the claws.
• Carapace up to 4 inches wide; light brown to olive green in color
• No swimming legs. This crab has eight sharp-tipped walking legs

If you catch a mitten crab

• Do not throw it back alive!
• Freeze the animal, keep it on ice, or preserve it in rubbing alcohol as a last resort
• Note the precise location and date where the animal was found
• Please take a close-up photo of the animal. Photos can be emailed to SERCMittenCrab AT si.edu for preliminary identification. Include your contact information with the photo
• If you cannot take a photo, contact the Mitten Crab Hotline (443-482-2222)

REMEMBER THE LAW! Never transport a live Mitten Crab across state boundaries

For additional information please visit http://www.serc.si.edu/labs/marine_invasions/ for updated Mitten Crab reports, downloadable pamphlets on the Chinese Mitten Crab Survey Program, and how to distinguish a Mitten Crab from other crabs

Fun With Video

A peek into the world of invasive species-related videos:

• This one is a real gem: Captain PU in "Attack of the Invasive Species" ...in which a grown man wears tights and a cape, and goes off to fight the invasive aquatic plant known as Eurasian water milfoil. In this version of unreality, the milfoil is a guy standing in the water, dressed in business casual accented by an aluminum foil hat and bow tie. Super cheesy but with a fair amount of useful information about aquatic invaders. Bonus points to you if you get flashbacks to the goofy videos you made with your friends back in school.
• Speaking of goofy videos you made with your friends back in school...this one on YouTube is certainly goofy, but watching a teen dressed up as an invasive Aussie rabbit get shot, poisoned, and attacked is laugh-out-loud funny. This other video may be for the same class project - it's really cute and actually has a lot of good information. Excuse me, I need to go buy some peanut M&M's! LOLZ!!!111!!
• The Center for Aquatic and Invasive Species has put together an identification video for the invasive aquatic plant hydrilla. This is a great idea! The video imparts far more information than you could get from just a set of photos, and does it faster than a fact sheet. Here's hoping it is just the first of many.
• Watch this video to learn about Dave Delaney's citizen science project to monitor marine invasive species that live off the coast of North America. Dave's research focuses on crabs: Asian shore crabs, European green crabs, and the Chinese mitten crab. If you are interested in finding out more about the project or perhaps even volunteering, be sure to check out Dave's website.
• Did this question about invasive species in the Great Lakes make it into the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate? It should have, if only because that kid put on a suit with a bow tie to go to the beach. Go Jake!
• Hankering for a hearty meal? Why not try some Kentucky Tuna? Of course by "Kentucky Tuna," I mean smoked bighead carp! It actually looks good.

A Man, A Crab, A Canal: Panama

EurekAlert! is reporting that the Harris mud crab (Rhithropanopeus harrisii) has definitely arrived in the Panama Canal. Researchers have discovered breeding populations of the invasive crab, native to the Atlantic coast of the US, in Miraflores Third Lock Lake. The lake has actually been separated from the canal system for decades, but is now scheduled to be reconnected as part of an expansion project. Now it's up to those researchers to determine just how widespread the crab is within the canal system.

The Harris mud crab is already quite widespread in Europe, and can be found in Russia as well. With all the concern about green crabs, Asian shore crabs, and the Chinese mitten crab invading the Atlantic coast of the US (check out all of the ISW articles on crabs), it is interesting to see a species native to that region becoming invasive in other parts of the world.

This is the very first mention of Panama in five years of posts at the Invasive Species Weblog. It's about time, Panama! :-)

Praying To The Porcelain Crab Gods

Georgia's got a crab problem...or at least they think they might...well actually, they're not quite sure. This report from newswise describes recent research on the impact of the introduced green porcelain crab (Petrolisthes armatus) on Georgia's oyster and mussel beds. While these tiny crabs are not oyster predators, they are filter feeders, so there is concern that they could be negatively impacting oysters and mussels by stealing away their food source. On the other hand, the crabs are providing a food source for larger crabs as well as fish, and this is altering the dynamics of the food web, possibly meaning less predation on oysters (but wait, won't that lead to more fish and predator crabs...and then???). The long-term impacts of the porcelain crab invasion have yet to be understood, but this three-year investigation has brought a lot of new information to light. To read more about it, check out the original research in the journal Biological Invasions...if you have a subscription. Or you can just download Amanda Hellebone's thesis (pdf) on the subject, no strings attached.

Thanks to budak for sending in a link to this story, and bonus points to newswise for keeping the scientific name of the crab in the article.

Crab And Go

CBC News is reporting that the European green crab (Carcinus maenas) was discovered last week off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. This is the first record for that province and marks the most northern point for the distribution of this marine invader on the Atlantic coast of North America. The discovery was made, of course, by fishermen, who noticed multiple green crabs in Placentia Bay. Perhaps the best nugget of information from the article, for me anyway, is that fishermen refer to the green crab as "cockroach of the sea" :-). More information is available from this article at cnews.

Turns Out You Really Can Get Crabs From A Toilet Seat

UK residents impacted by the recent floods are now dealing with yet another crisis: Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) crawling out of their toilets.

At first I thought this was a hoax along the lines of the infamous "toilet spider" emails that made the rounds in the late 1990s, but apparently it is real. Water levels have risen so high in the area of Hampton, England that the crabs are able to travel right up the pipes and out into people's homes. This is Local London has the story (along with a rather inappropriate photo of a mitten crab on a plate). The UK's Environment Agency is warning people to, well, keep their toilet seats down.

The crabs aren't just staying in the sewers either - The Richmond and Twickenham Times has this report about a woman who has seen dozens of them running around in her garden over the past week. Chinese mitten crabs were discovered in Europe back in the early 1900s, but until recently their populations in England had remained low. At the very least, this disaster has certainly raised their profile in the minds of homeowners across the UK.

Mitten Mania

The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) continues to make its mark on the east coast of the USA...just a few days after sightings were reported in both Maryland and Delaware comes news that the crab has been spotted in New York's Hudson River. This looks to be the first confirmed record of the species in New York state.

Meanwhile, The News Journal is reporting that three more of the mitten crabs have been caught in Delaware. The crabber who found them says he's been seeing them for years and throwing them back :-(.

Found Their Mittens - Again!

Just a few days after it was reported that a Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) was discovered off the coast of Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay, a crabber has yet again found one of the crabs, this time in the Delaware Bay. This is the first record of the mitten crab for Delaware. Delaware Online has the full story, including interviews with the crabber's dad and a most excellent quote from a guy in charge at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control:

"I know almost nothing about them, except what I'm reading now,"

Eesh. Let's hope for Delaware's sake that was taken out of context.

Fun With Entrez

Let the sequencing battle begin!!!!

• Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria): 50 nucleotide sequences, 26 protein sequences
• Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha): 386 nucleotide sequences, 63 protein sequences
• Nutria (Myocastor coypus): 81 nucleotide sequences, 39 protein sequences
• Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis): 25 nucleotide sequences, 11 protein sequences
• Brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis): 32 nucleotide sequences, 5 protein sequences
• Northern snakehead (Channa argus): 52 nucleotide sequences, 46 protein sequences
• Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis): 238 nucleotide sequences, 89 protein sequences
• Frog Chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis): 439 nucleotide sequences, 3 protein sequences

Decision goes to: Zebra mussel, with a combined 449 sequences. Go Team Zebra Mussel!!!

Found Their Mittens

Could Maryland be on the brink of yet another species invasion? WJZ.com is reporting that a Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) was found this week in the Chesapeake Bay. This is at least the second mitten crab found in the area - the first was discovered in August 2006, and as a commenter notes in this older ISW post, someone in the area also had one in their freezer.

This is yet another example of the value of public outreach in managing invasive species issues. Maryland has taken advantage of an easily recognizable identification character, those distinctly furry claws, to put out the word and get everyone to be on the lookout for the Chinese mitten crab. Bonus points to the crabber who noticed the odd crab in his pot - the first sighting of this species was also made by a crabber.

For more about this story, be sure to check out the video at WJZ.com, and this story from the Baltimore Sun.

Snatch and Crab

Crabbers in Puget Sound are feeling crabby about the recent drop in the price of crab legs, and it looks like some introduced crustaceans are to blame. The Seattle Times is reporting that Seattle crabbers cannot compete with the price, numbers and sheer size of the king crabs (Paralithodes camtschaticus) coming out of Russia. These are the same king crabs, intentionally introduced to the Barents Sea, that have gotten attention from environmentalists as they spread and multiplied down the Norwegian coastline. I for one am willing to do my duty by helping eat them out of existence! ;-)

Negative bonus points to the person who suggested this post title is off-color. You all can just go snicker someplace else. Go on now. Git.

New Arrivals

Some interesting emails have been coming in from the USGS NAS Alert System:

• Red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans) found in a pond near the University of Hawaii, the first record of the species in Hawaii in 10 years.
• A second Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) has been found in Lake Superior.
• Giant barnacles (Megabalanus coccopoma) were discovered in South Carolina, bringing the total number of states where the barnacle has been found to five (the USGS database says four but my notes say it has been spotted in Texas too).
• The NAS Alert System recently added plants to their list of organism types. If you've already registered with the system and you want to receive the plant alerts, you need to login and check the Plants box. The first two alerts were for variable watermilfoil (Myriophyllum heterophyllum). Looks like it has hit the West Coast of the US, with both Washington and Oregon reporting it (Washington in 2003).

Dungens and Crabbins

YubaNet is reporting that a Dungeness crab (Cancer magister), native to the west coast of the U.S., was found this past July in the Atlantic Ocean. No one is sure how the Pacific Crab got all the way across the continental U.S., but due to its size (big) and sex (male), it is suspected that it was purchased as seafood and then released. West Coast dungeness crab fisheries can only catch and sell male crabs.

This story was first reported over a month ago by MIT and also media sources such as the Underwater Times.

Crabtastic

BBC News is reporting that Norway fears the invasion of the red king crab (Paralithodes camtschatica) is imminent. Maybe "continues to fear" would be the right way to describe it, since some version of this article seems to pop up in the British press every couple of years., along with the requisite reference to how great it would be if we could eat all the darn things up (mmmm....crab). I now know that if I ever go to Norway, I need to be sure to sign up for one of these crab safaris so I can pick up my own dinner off the bottom of the ocean (mmm...takeout takeaway).

Thanks to biosparite for sending in a link to the article.

Maryland Crab Cakes

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that a Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) has been found in the Patapsco River in Maryland. A crabber discovered the non-native species this past June when checking his pots for crabs. This is the first record for the Chinese mitten crab in Maryland or anywhere in the Chesapeake region - they've been on the west coast of the U.S. for a while now.

Update:As an anonymous ISW reader points out in the comments below, a second Chinese mitten crab has been found from the same river, from a catch over one year ago. Kudos to the volunteer park ranger who heard the alert that went out and realized he had one of the crabs in his freezer.

Green Crab Blues

According to this report from The Capital Online, populations of invasive green crab (Carcinus maenas) found in the Chesapeake Bay are being kept in check by an unlikely source: native blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus). In taste tests, the blue crabs preferentially chose green crabs over foods they have eaten historically, like clams. The biologists studying the crabs recently published the results of their tests, done both in the lab and in the ocean, in an article in the journal Ecology.

Bonus points to The Capital for noting the scientific names of both crab species.

Stone Crab Cold

Crab trappers in Collier County, Florida are alarmed at news that the South American Bocourt crab (Callinectes bocourti) has been discovered in Fakahatchee Bay. According to this story at NBC2 News, catches of stone crab (Menippe mercenaria) are already down, making trappers wonder what impact the introduction of another crab species will have. Biologists are concerned that the species may compete with its native congener, the blue crab C. sapidus. Apparently the Bocourt crab was discovered in back January, but just recently reported.

Around the World in 7 Days: Antarctica

You might be thinking that there is not much to post about invasive species in Antarctica...and you'd be right. Unfortunately last summer two scientists made a discovery that invalidated every scientific paper and newspaper article that ever said "...on every continent except Antarctica." Seems the North Atlantic spider crab (Hyas araneus) was found far from home, all way down on the Antarctic Peninsula. Read the article abstract here or read a summary on page 7, Issue 16 of the Ballast Water News (.pdf).

East Meets West Meets East

The Quebecois have extended a not-so-gracious welcome to their newest invader: the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis). According to this report from the CBC, scientists think the crab, which needs both fresh and salt water to reproduce, is likely to spread through the St. Lawrence River. This species is already quite well-known in California.