Port of Taranaki: Baseline survey for non-indenous marine species. Inglis, G. J., Gust, N., Fitridge, I., Floerl, O., Hayden, B. J., & Fenwick, G. D. Technical Report NIWA, Christchurch, March, 2006.
Port of Taranaki: Baseline survey for non-indenous marine species [pdf]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
\textlessb\textgreater \textless/b\textgreaterExecutive Summary This report describes the results of an April 2002 survey to provide a baseline inventory of native, non indigenous and cryptogenic marine species within the Port of Taranaki. • The survey is part of a nationwide investigation of native and non-native marine biodiversity in 13 international shipping ports and three marinas of first entry for yachts entering New Zealand from overseas. • Sampling methods used in these surveys were based on protocols developed by the Australian Centre for Research on Introduced Marine Pests (CRIMP) for baseline surveys of non-indigenous species in ports. Modifications were made to the CRIMP protocols for use in New Zealand port conditions. • A wide range of sampling techniques was used to collect marine organisms from habitats within the Port of Taranaki. Fouling assemblages were scraped from hard substrata by divers, benthic assemblages were sampled using a sled and benthic grabs, and a gravity corer was used to sample for dinoflagellate cysts. Mobile predators and scavengers were sampled using baited fish, crab, starfish and shrimp traps. • The distribution of sampling effort in the Port of Taranaki was designed to maximise the chances of detecting non-indigenous species and concentrated on high-risk locations and habitats where non-indigenous species were most likely to be found. • Organisms collected during the survey were sent to local and international taxonomic experts for identification. • A total of 270 species or higher taxa was identified from the Taranaki Port survey. They consisted of 180 native species, 15 non-indigenous species, 20 cryptogenic species (those whose geographic origins are uncertain) and 55 species indeterminata (taxa for which there is insufficient taxonomic or systematic information available to allow identification to species level). • Two NIS and seven cryptogenic species sampled in the Port of Taranaki were recorded for the first time in New Zealand waters. These were the hydroid Eudendrium capillare the ascidian Cnemidocarpa sp., the cryptogenic portunid crab, Ovalipes elongatus, an undescribed pycnogonid (Achelia sp. nov. A), an amphipod (Leucothoe sp. 1), and five species of sponge (Esperiopsis n. sp. 1, Halichondria n. sp. 4, Halichondria n. sp. 1, Paraesperella n. sp. 1, Phorbas n. sp. 2). • The 15 non-indigenous organisms described from the Port of Taranaki included representatives of six phyla. The non-indigenous species detected (ordered alphabetically by phylum, class, order, family, genus and species) were: (Annelida) Barantolla lepte, (Bryozoa) Bugula flabellata, Bugula neritina, Bugula stolonifera, Cryptosula pallasiana, Tricellaria inopinata, Watersipora arcuata and Watersipora subtorquata, (Cnidaria) Eudendrium capillare, (Mollusca) Crassostrea gigas and Theora lubrica, (Phycophyta) Griffithsia crassiuscula and Polysiphonia sertularioides, (Porifera) Halisarca dujardini, and (Urochordata) Cnemidocarpa sp. • None of the non-indigenous organisms collected and described from the Port of Taranaki are currently on the New Zealand register of unwanted organisms. The Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, and cysts of the cryptogenic toxic dinoflagellate, Gymnodinium catenatum, were present in the Port. Both species are included on the ABWMAC list of unwanted marine species in Australia. • Most non-indigenous species located in the Port of Taranaki are likely to have been introduced to New Zealand accidentally by international shipping or through domestic translocation or spread from other locations in New Zealand. • Approximately 73 % (11 of 15 species) of NIS in the Port of Taranaki are likely to have been introduced in hull fouling assemblages, 7 % via ballast water and 20 % could have been introduced by either ballast water or hull fouling vectors. • The predominance of hull fouling species in the introduced biota of the Port of Taranaki (as opposed to ballast water introductions) is consistent with findings from similar port baseline studies overseas.

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