In-water and dry-dock hull fouling assessments reveal high risk for regional translocation of nonindigenous species in the southwestern Atlantic

MARCO MELONI; NANCY CORREA; FABIO BETTINI PITOMBO; IGNACIO LUIS CHIESA; BRENDA DOTI; RODOLFO ELÍAS; GABRIEL GENZANO; CLARA B. GIACHETTI; DIEGO GIMÉNEZ; JUAN LÓPEZ-GAPPA; CATALINA PASTOR DE WARD

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF HYDROBIOLOGY

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2020

1434-2944

To assess the potential of domestic traffic for the regional spread of nonindigenousspecies (NIS), we surveyed the hull of an oceanographic vessel serving routes in thesouthwestern Atlantic and Southern Ocean. Sampling was performed while the vesselwas in the water and in dry-dock in the Port of Mar del Plata. We found 120 taxabelonging to 14 different invertebrate groups, including 53 species, 47 morphospecies,and 20 taxa identified at higher taxonomic levels. Ten of these species had never beenreported for the Port of Mar del Plata and adjacent areas prior to the present study, and13 are new records for the whole Argentine coast. While both in-water and dry-docksampling allowed the detection of native, non-native, and cryptogenic fauna, moresamples and species were obtained in dry-dock. Dry-dock richness estimatesamounted to up to ~110 hull fouling species. Despite specific logistic challenges, drydocksampling should be considered by managers assessing vector strength due to itsgreater species detection power. The present results highlight the potential of hullfouling on domestic vessels for the regional spread of marine NIS, and pinpoint likelyfuture additions to the non-native fauna inventory in the southwestern Atlantic.