13 



One of the most spectacular invasions of all is now occurring in 

 the Black Sea, courtesy of an American species of comb jellyfish, 

 transpori;ed by ballast water. It is the revenge of the zebra mussel. 

 Blooms of hundreds of millions of tons of the comb jellyfish have 

 led to a nearly complete decimation of the anchovy fishery in the 

 Black and Azov Seas. One single species has managed to com- 

 pletely alter the food web of one of the world's greatest inland seas. 

 This was, of course, in a country far away, but it teaches us what 

 could happen tomorrow in the Chesapeake Bay or Puget Sound. 



Every 60 minutes almost 2 million gallons of aquatic life in bal- 

 last water from foreign parts are released in U.S. waters. Will a 

 new invasion occur in the United States in the next few weeks or 

 few months? Absolutely. Will the next invasion be a problem, a ca- 

 tastrophe? Again, it is a spin of the wheel. It may be a small fish. 

 It may be an innocuous worm. It may be another zebra mussel. I 

 urge your careful attention. 



Thank you. 



Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Dr. Carlton. 



I now have some questions for the witnesses. Dr. Caron, you 

 mentioned an apparent shortage of bee colonies may prevent cur- 

 rent and future pollination needs. To what extent is this problem 

 caused by harmful alien pests, and how will this affect the agricul- 

 tural and horticultural sectors of our economy? 



Mr. Caron. Thank you. Yes, the introduction of the alien mite 

 pest — there are two involved; I mentioned both of them, the veroa 

 and the tracheal mite — is indeed a very serious threat to our indus- 

 try. These are imports that came accidentally in the middle 1980's 

 and now have caused an apparent shortage in availability of bee 

 colonies for pollination purposes. Coupled with the arrival of the 

 Africanized bee, we expect disruption in the availability of bee colo- 

 nies to a number of our major crops. 



We could live without honey. We could live without the other 

 products from bee colonies. We have alternative sugar sources. But 

 we cannot live with the pollination services of honeybees and our 

 many native species of bees that assist. 



We rely on our honeybees that we can move. We can put them 

 on trucks and move them into the pollination situations, and for 

 this reason we need and must maintain a healthy, sufficient popu- 

 lation of bees for this pollination service. 



The three factors of the mites, the two mites and the Africanized 

 bees, indeed have resulted in a shortage, and we expect that it will 

 impact by altering the types of crops that we may grow or the 

 areas in which we may grow them. 



Of immediate concern, of course, are the areas of the Rio Grande 

 Valley with signific£uit pollination of crops in that area, and the 

 population moving into the California agricultural scene, eventu- 

 ally into the Florida agricultural scene where we have the produc- 

 tion of crops that serve throughout the States for the majority of 

 the year. It is indeed a significant factor. 



Senator Akaka. APHIS failed to promptly respond to the 1987 

 Florida infestation of veroa mites in honeybee colonies, only to see 

 the pests spread to 30 States by 1991. Wliat are some of the mis- 

 takes that were made in the case of the veroa mite infestation, and 



