Caulerpa taxifolia in Japan... slug food?

March 27, 2002
From: Cynthia Trowbridge

Dear Bill and colleagues,
I attended the International Caulerpa taxifolia conference in San Diego in late January. Dr. Thierry Thibaut talked about his excellent work with Mediterranean and Caribbean sacoglossans. I talked, in part, about the NE Pacific sacoglossans that potentially may eat C. taxifolia on Californian shores (and Mexican shores if the alga spreads). The proceedings of the conference will be published in the Proceedings of the California Fish & Game, probably later this year.

An interesting but sobering fact we learned was that C. taxifolia ("killer algae") is now in Japan. With 19 spp. of Caulerpa and many varieties in Japan, it will be a large challenge to follow the probable spread of the alga on Japanese shores.

I would ask that if you do see the alga with ANY associated sacoglossans, please let me and the rest of the international community know. This is a very serious issue -- the aquarium strain of C. taxifolia (but not the "wild populations")is probably one of the worst marine invaders ever. With large numbers of species of Caulerpa -feeding sacoglossans, Japan may be less affected than other geographic regions; we can only hope.
Cordially,

Cynthia
Marine Ecologist & Invasion Biologist
Hatfield Marine Science Center
Newport, OR 97365 USA

trowbric@onid.orst.edu

Trowbridge, C., 2002 (Mar 27) Caulerpa taxifolia in Japan... slug food?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/6528

Factsheet

Caulerpa taxifolia in the Mediterranean

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