| Hitchhiking
across the Pacific with imported shellfish, on boats,
or in bilge and ballast water, alien sea squirts known
as tunicates have been busy colonizing marinas and dive
spots throughout Puget Sound.
Over a single year, two individual squirts managed
to smother and slime Sund Rock in Hood Canal, a popular
dive spot. They have been known to cluster-smother mussel
and aquaculture beds.
“By the time we’d recognized what was
going on at Sund Rock, it was bonkers, they were all
over the place,” says Janna Nichols, the acting
field general for taming the tunicate infestors. Nichols
has trained and certified over 175 slime-fighting divers.
Last October at Sund, with divers from Portland and
Olympia, they removed over 1,500 tunicates -—
which, once above the water, resembled a 90-pound heap
of snot.
 |
Down for the
ecosystem:Diver Janna Nichols and
her husband, Claude, tear out marine
invaders. |
The creatures have no predators here, and they multiply
in Hood Canal’s “fish-kill-die-offs”
that occur when oxygen levels plummet in late summer.
Nichols wonders if the ill-health of the South Sound
explains the slimers’ success, but is confident
that vigilant divers won’t let the situation get
out of hand again.
-Chris Miller
Know people who’ve made a difference?
Tell us about them: editor@realchangenews.org
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