Port of Bluff: Baseline survey for non-indenous marine species. Inglis, G. J., Gust, N., Fitridge, I., Floerl, O., & Hayden, B. J. Technical Report NIWA, Christchurch, September, 2006.
Port of Bluff: Baseline survey for non-indenous marine species [pdf]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
Executive Summary This report describes the results of a March 2003 survey to provide a baseline inventory of native, non-indigenous and cryptogenic marine species within the Port of Bluff. • The survey is part of a nationwide investigation of native and non-indigenous 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 a range of habitats within the Port of Bluff. 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 Bluff 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 330 species or higher taxa was identified from the Port of Bluff survey. They consisted of 207 native species, 12 non-indigenous species, 28 cryptogenic species (those whose geographic origins are uncertain) and 83 species indeterminata (taxa for which there is insufficient taxonomic or systematic information available to allow identification to species level). • Twenty species of marine organisms collected from the Port of Bluff have not previously been described from New Zealand waters; three of these were first New Zealand records of non-indigenous species (a hydroid, Symplectoscyphus indivisus; a crab, Cancer amphioetus; and a sponge, Leucosolenia cf. discoveryi). The other 17 species are considered cryptogenic and include 16 species of sponge that do not match existing species descriptions and which may be new to science. • The 12 non-indigenous organisms described from the Port of Bluff included representatives of five phyla. The non-indigenous species detected (ordered alphabetically by phylum, class, order, family, genus and species) were: (Bryozoa) Bugula flabellata, Watersipora subtorquata (Cnidaria) Symplectoscyphus indivisus (Crustacea) Cancer amphioetus (Phycophyta) Griffithsia crassiuscula, Polysiphonia brodiaei (Porifera) Grantessa intusarticulata, Leucosolenia cf. discoveryi, Stylotella agminata, Halisarca dujardini, Chondropsis topsentii, Psammoclema cf. crassum • No species detected from the Port of Bluff are on the New Zealand register of unwanted organisms. Cysts of the cryptogenic toxin-producing dinoflagellate, Alexandrium catenella were recovered from core samples taken in Bluff. A. catenella is one of four toxic dinoflagellate species on the Australian ABWMAC list of unwanted marine pests. • Most non-indigenous species located in the Port of Bluff are likely to have been introduced to the port by international shipping or through domestic translocation or spread from other locations in New Zealand. • Approximately 75% of NIS (nine of 12 species) in the Port of Bluff are likely to have been introduced in hull fouling assemblages, and 25 % 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 Bluff (as opposed to ballast water introductions) is consistent with findings from similar port baseline studies overseas.

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