More and more invasive species are being found in waters they don’t belong in and devastating natural resident populations.  Fisheries has published a list of the species they are watching for and ask everyone if they spot and identify one or catch one not to throw it back but to report it and the location so that it can be dealt with.  It is possible that these species are are being picked up on boats and inadvertently transferred to new areas or perhaps they are coming in due to changes in the ocean circulation and temperature such as the lack of circulation that occurred in the middle of the pacific.  The correspondent rise in the ocean temperature is now returning to normal after 2 years and many of the tropical species of fish that were seen much farther north than normal are no longer in North Pacific waters.

A catalog of the watch list and a link for reporting is available at http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/environmental-environnement/ais-eae/identify-eng.html#marineInvasiveSpecies  .

The Japanese shrimp pictured is just one of the species on the watch list…