It’s never too early to share your roundtable updates with your peers. Please post your updates here and never hesitate to contact me if I may provide any assistance with your information sharing on this forum.
Thank you,
-- Michele L. Tremblay naturesource communications PO Box 3019 | Penacook NH 03303 603.796.2615 | 796.2600 fax | 902.218.2291 Canada www.naturesource.net | https://www.linkedin.com/in/MicheleLTremblay naturesource is a 1% for the Planet business
Program Update for June 2017 NEANS Meeting
Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
Marine Invasive Monitoring and Information Collaborative (MIMIC):
MIMIC is CZM’s marine invasive species early detection and monitoring network involving trained volunteers and partner staff who monitor docks, rocky intertidal zones and tidepools in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Since 2006, volunteers have monitored for the presence/absence and abundance of 16 established animal and plant species, and looked for 7 potential invaders. In the past few years CZM has worked with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to add eelgrass beds and artificial reefs to the monitored habitats.
In the 2016 monitoring season (April-November) CZM and 10 regional partners worked with more than 100 volunteers to monitor 67 sites for a total of 168 monitoring events, including new sites in New Hampshire and northern Maine. In general, observation patterns were similar to prior years and no potential invaders from our monitoring list were documented. We plan to continue to monitor in the 2017 season at a similar number of sites.
New Invader “Spaghetti” Bryozoan (Amathia verticillata):
In the early fall, CZM staff observed a new invader that is not yet established in New England, although it has been observed a handful of times in Long Island Sound and once before in MA. This arborescent, colonial bryozoa called the “spaghetti” Bryozoan (Amathia verticillata) was observed at a monitoring site in New Bedford in the fall. It is thought that this species cannot currently survive New England winter temperatures, but can have “blooms” in the late summer/early fall with warm water temperatures. CZM, working with invasive scientists, will continue to monitor for this species in 2017.
Future Work:
CZM is interested in incorporating the impacts of climate change in our monitoring work and is working on updating our monitoring program to document new invaders that may be moving up the coast with warming temperatures and native species that may be shifting distribution ranges in response to climate change. CZM has been involved in the Northeast Regional Invasive Species & Climate Change (RISCC) group and plans to attend the RISCC Symposium taking place in July 2017.
Every few years CZM along with state and non-profit partners conducts a more intensive rapid assessment survey of docks along the coast from Rhode Island to Maine using a standardized approach and working with a team of scientists that have species expertise. The last rapid assessment survey was in 2013 and CZM is actively seeking funding to do another rapid assessment survey in 2017 which will help inform monitoring efforts and identify newly introduced species.