‘IN CONVERSATION’ with Dr Bella Galil (Senior Scientist, Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research, Nafa) – “Fish and Ships: Marine Bioinvasions”

Records of alien marine species have increased by orders of magnitude over the past decades, with some regions recording several new species per year. The globalisation of trade plays a key role in this accelerated spread of species because many of them are transported by ships. Ballast water, used for stabilisation, with the entrained biota, are transported over long distances. Likewise, hull fouling, marine organisms fouling the wetted surface of vessels, are transported from one port to the next.

Shipping is assumed to represent the single largest invasion vector worldwide. Even though invasive species are now recognised as one of the greatest threats to marine biodiversity, pathways for species dispersal remain poorly understood and only a few studies have studied shipping-transported invasion dynamics. Since the likelihood of viable introductions depends not only on shipping intensity but on ecological and environmental factors as well.