Invasion
Invasion Description
1st records: 'from a British frigate sunk during the Revolutionary war', Manhattan/NY/Hells Gate, East River (Tryon 1862); Woods Hole/MA/Vineyard Sound-Buzzards Bay (1871, Verrill and Smith 1873); New Haven/CT/Long Island Sound (Perkins 1871);'The only locality in which I have found this species is an old half-buried wreck near the entrance of the harbour' (Perkins 1871).
Geographic Extent
Chatham/MA/Nantucket Sound (Wallour 1960); Woods Hole/MA/Buzzards Bay-Vineyard Sound; MA/Vineyard Sound (1871, Verrill and Smith 1873); Edgartown/MA/Vineyard Sound (1938, Brown 1953; Wallour 1960); Cuttyhunk/MA/Vineyard Sound-Buzzards Bay (Brown 1953; Wallour 1960); New Bedford-Cuttyhunk/MA/Buzzards Bay; MA-RI/Taunton River and Narragansett Bay (Swain, in Manley 1893, 'abounds'); Slades Ferry Bridge, Fall River/MA/Taunton River (1924, MCZ 120154, Museum of Comparative Zoology 2009); India Point, Providence/RI/Provience River (1939, 1951, sporadic settlement (Brown 1953); Tiverton/RI/Sakonnet River (1934-1959, Brown 1953, Wallour 1960); Quonset Point, North Kingstown/RI/Narragansett Bay (1949-1959, Brown 1953, Wallour 1960);, Newport/RI/Narragansett Bay (1949-1959, Brown 1953, Wallour 1960); Block Island/RI/Rhode Island Sound (1948-1959, Brown 1953, Wallour 1960); Block Island/RI/Rhode Island Sound (1948-1959, Brown 1953, Wallour 1960); South Groton/CT/Fishers Island Sound (1937-1959, Wallour 1960); New London/CT/Long Island Sound (Wallour 1960); New Haven/CT/Long Island Sound (Perkins 1871; Wallour 1960); Bridgeport/CT/Long Island Sound (Wallour 1960); Norwalk/CT/Long Island Sound (Wallour 1960); Fishers Island/NY/Long Island Sound (Wallour 1960); Cold Spring Harbor/NY/Long Island Sound (Balch 1899); Sayville/NY/Great Bay (Wallour 1960); Atlantic Beach/NY/Atlantic Ocean Wallour 1960); Bronx-Manhattan-Queens-Brooklyn, Staten Island/NY/New York Harbor (1938-1959, 10+ stations); JFK International Airport, Queens, New York/NY/Jamaica Bay (Abood et al. 1995); New York City Passenger Ship Terminal, Manhatten, New York/NY/Hudson River (Abood et al. 1995); Hoboken/NJ/Hudson River (Wallour 1960); Bayonne/NJ/Newark Bay (Wallour 1960); Perth Amboy/NJ/Raritan Bay (Wallour 1960); Ocean County/NJ/Atlantic Ocean (Nelson 1922, cited by Richards et al. 1984; Wallour 1960; Richards et al. 1984); NJ/Great Egg Harbor (Verrill and Smith 1873); Cape May/NJ/Delaware Bay (Wallour 1960); Lewes/DE/Delaware Bay (1948, Brown 1953; Wallour 1960); Worcester County/MD/Chincoteague Bay (rare, Scheltema and Truitt 1954); Ocean City/MD/Atlantic Ocean (abundant, Scheltema and Truitt 1954); Wachapreague/VA/Wachapreague Channel (McGovern et al. 1989); Yorktown/VA/York River (1949-1959, Brown 1953, Wallour 1960); Norfolk/VA/Hampton Roads (1944-1959, Brown 1953, Wallour 1960); Portsmouth/VA/Hampton Roads (1944-1959, Brown 1953, Wallour 1960); Cape Charles/VA/Chesapeake Bay (mouth) (Wallour 1960); Newport News/VA/Hampton Roads (1924, MCZ 121448, Museum of Caomparative Zoology 2009); Norfolk/VA/Hampton Roads (1924, MCZ 120444, Museum of Comparative Zoology 2009); 'a 300 m (1000 foot pier and 21-m (70 foot wide pier in Virginia'/VA/Chesapeake Bay (Abood et al. 1995, extensive shipworm damage, probably both from Bankia gouldi and T. navalis)
Vectors
| Level | Vector |
|---|---|
| Probable | Hull Fouling |
Regional Impacts
| Economic Impact | Shipping/Boating | |
| In the region between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras, T. navalis has been observed to damage boats, pilings, floats, and wooden buoys, since the late 19th century (Verrill and Smith 1873; Swain, in Manley 1893; Nelson 192; Richards 1984). Settlement and the extent of damage by the shipworms varies greatly with environmental conditions, including temperature, salinity, and humic compounds in the water (Brown 1953; Wallour 1970). In Barnegat Bay, periods of drought in 1921-1922 favored heavy settlement (Nelson 1922), as did warm, saline effluent from a nuclear power plant in the 1970s (Turner 1973; Richards et al. 1984). In New York Harbor, extensive pollution limited shipworm settlement and fouling organisms (Atwood 1920), so the harbor was considered 'clean' by ship captains. The absence of shipworms permitted the use of wooden pilings without the expense of chemical treatment or encasing them. After the Clean Water act of 1972, and pollution cleanup efforts, T. navalis returned to the harbor, causing extensive damage to wooden pilings (Abood et al. 1995; Foderaro 2011). In the 1980s-1990s, in New York waters, extensive projects for protection of pilings were conducted at the New York Passenger Ship Terminal, and the many barge piers of the New York Sanitation Department, located around the city. These involved wrapping the piers in plastic, performed by divers (Abood et al. 1995). Another extensive repair project involved a 300 m (1000 ft) long and 21 m (70 ft) wide pier in Virginia, (probably in or near Norfolk) in which many damaged piling had to be replaced, and more than 2,000 timber pilings were wrapped in plastic (Abood et al. 1995). Impacts to wooden structures in Chesapeake Bay are probably due mostly to Bankia gouldi , but T. navalis is present in the lower Bay (Brown 1953; Scheltema 1954). | ||
| Economic Impact | Fisheries | |
| Teredo navalis frequently causes damage to lobster pots, oyster-trays, and other wooden fisheries structures (Nelson 1922; Grave 1928). | ||
| Economic Impact | Aesthetic | |
| Shipworms pose a substantial threat to public and private waterfront property used in recreation, entertainment, and tourism. New York City is planning to spend $200 million over the next few decades to encase and preserve piers to be used as part of waterfront parks (Foderaro 2011). | ||