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In order to address the problem of non-indigenous species, there must be a coordi- 

 nated effort at the Federal level to identify pest problems at an early stage and pre- 

 vent their entry. In order to locate infestations at this level, Federal agencies must 

 improve current survey and detection techniques. Intentional and accidental intro- 

 ductions must be monitored extensively at ports of entry by properly trained and 

 technical personnel. At this small scale, there is a possibility or eradicating the pop- 

 ulation prior to the time it escapes thus eliminating the need for additional or ex- 

 tensive pesticide applications. To accomplish the objective of early intervention and 

 prevention, adequate and stable funding must be established enabling Federal agen- 

 cies to address non-indigenous species on an emergency basis. 



Policy issues as outlined in the recently released OTA Report and by the USDA- 

 APHIS, PPQ Weed Policy Steering Group in their departmental recommendations 

 represent a shift to a more holistic approach in reacting to the introduction of non- 

 indigenous plant and animal species in the United States. One strea that cries out, 

 in my opinion, for more attention and funding is the area of noxious weed introduc- 

 tions. Considering the full impacts of non-indigenous species, weeds have far more 

 impact from an economic perspective on agricultural and natural ecosystems than 

 any other pests. Presently, they receive less attention because they do not creep, 

 crawl, or fly and in many cases take longer to establish and begin to proliferate. 



In the near future, I hope there will be cooperation in Congress to revise the Fed- 

 eral Noxious Weed Law granting full authority to react promptly to the introduction 

 of non-indigenous weed species. Without careful and deliberate attention, I feel the 

 rich plant and animal diversity so much a part of our natural habitats will be lost 

 to non-indigenous species. I urge you as Members of Congress to review these issues 

 and take appropriate actions. 



PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES T. CARLTON 



Our coastal waters — our estuaries, bays, ports, harbors, rocky shores, salt 

 marshes, sandy beaches, sounds, and many other habitats — are now the honie of 

 hundreds of species of exotic marine, brackish-water, and freshwater organisms. 

 These invasions continue into 1994 in a biological "game" of ecological roulette: 



• In the Pacific Northwest, where once were vast areas of critical open habitat 

 on upper intertidal bay shores, are now equally vast meadows of the Japanese 

 eelgrass, Zostera japonica. Open flats are now rooted vegetation, a profound 

 change that can dramatically alter the distribution of native animals and 

 plants, the accumulation of sediments, and potentially soil chemistry. 



The Japanese eelgrass was accidentally introduced in the 1940s or 1950s with 

 shipments of Japanese commercial oysters. 



• In many parts of San Francisco Bay it is now difficult if not impossible to find 

 native species. Over 200 species of exotic animals and plants are now found 

 from the Golden Gate to the shipping channels of Sacramento, and from the 

 marshes of Vallejo to the lagoons of San Jose. In some parts of San Francisco 

 Bay, guidebooks to the marine life of Japan and to the marine life of New Eng- 

 land are all one needs to identify the common species. 



Sea anemones, snails, sea squirts, sponges, seaweeds, and a vast variety of 

 other organisms were brought to San Francisco Bay on the bottoms of Gold 

 Rush ships in the 1850s, and these invasions continue today in the ballast 

 water of global ships in the 1990s. Many other species were inadvertently 

 transported to the Bay with Atlantic and Japanese oysters. How the Bay 

 "works" — everything from the food webs and the energy flow to the geology 

 of the bay shores — has been profoundly changed by these invasions. 



• A boat mooring — a long piece of V2" nylon line, for example — hauled up in Long 

 Island Sound is covered with luxuriant growths of 6"-long brown seasquirts and 

 12"-long mats of thick green seaweed. Sprinkled here and there are large or- 

 ange patches of another seasquirt, and little orange-striped sea anemones poke 

 out from within this fouling matrix. A third type of opaque white seasquirt is 

 squeezed in every possible crack. 



The brown seasquirts are Styela clava, the introduced Asian species that may 

 have displaced many populations of our native mussel Mytilus edulis. It 

 reached our shores on boat bottoms from Europe in the early 1970s. The or- 

 ange seasquirts are Botrylloides diegensis, inadvertently introduced from Cali- 

 fornia by an experimental scientist; it too arrived in the early 19703. The 

 green seaweed is the Asian algae Codium fragile tomentosoides — first found 

 at Montauk Point, New York, in 1957, and now found from Maine to North 

 Carolina. The sea anemones are the Japanese Haliplanella lineata — an older 



