Invasion
Invasion Description
1st Record: Sydney/New South Wales/Sydney Harbor area (Allen and Wood 1950, cited by Winston 1977)
Geographic Extent
Sydney/New South Wales/Sydney Harbor area (Allen and Wood 1950; Wisely 1959; Blick and Wisely 1964, all cited by Winston 1977); Wollongong/New South Wales/Tasman Sea (Mackie et al. 2006); New South Wales/Quarantine Bay (Mackie et al. 2006); Merimbula/New South Wales/Tasman Sea (Mackie et al. 2006); The Spit/New South Wales/Tasman Sea (Mackie et al. 2006); Sydney/New South Wales/Sydney Harbor (2001, 20 of 21 sites sampled, Australian Museum Business Services 2007); New South Wales/Botany Bay (Pollard and Pethebridge 2007; Hedge and Johnston 2012)
Vectors
| Level | Vector |
|---|---|
| Probable | Hull Fouling |
Regional Impacts
| Economic Impact | Shipping/Boating | |
| Shipping and Boating- Watersipora spp. have long been known to be tolerant of copper and mercury in antifouling paint (Piola and Johnston 2006). Their hard encrusting colonies are tolerant of moving water, and their colonies also provide non-toxic points of attachment for other organisms, allowing a diverse fouling community to develop (Floerl et al. 2007). Experimental studies on W. subtorquata's response to antifouling paint were done in Botany Bay and Port Jackson, near Sydney (Piola and Johnston 2006). | ||
| Ecological Impact | Competition | |
| Exposure to copper anti-fouling paint resulted in enhanced recruitment of W. subtorquata, despite post-settlement mortality. Surviving colonies had shorter ancestrulae and were smaller (MacKenzie et al. 2012). The ability to tolerate and even be favored by copper pollution gives W. subtorquata a competitive advantage in polluted habitats (MacKenzie et al. 2011; MacKenzie et al. 2012a) | ||