About the Non-Native Species of the Gulf of Mexico

Background and Objectives

The spread of exotic or non-native species through intentional or inadvertent transport by man has become an extremely serious threat to native plants and animals worldwide. Negative economic effects of invasions or introductions of non-native species in the US alone were estimated at 97 billion dollars in 1991. That figure continues to rise as our understanding of the crisis is more fully understood. An effective, coordinated response to address the effects of such invasions is urgently needed and must be based on detailed knowledge of the biology and behavior of these species.

This web site is intended to address this urgent need.

It provides a Gulf-wide inventory of biological data on non-native species, including fishes and invertebrates.
It also addresses microorganisms with disease potential within the Gulf of Mexico and near-coastal habitats.

The longer term goal of the website is to improve tracking of the effects of non-native species. The web-site is designed to permit data and information to be shared between the GSMFC non-native species site, the USGS Aquatic Species database, and other sites with which agreements have been made.

Program and Partners

Work done to date includes development of a master list of non-native species in the Gulf and associated ecosystems; text and literature information about invasive vertebrates, invertebrates, and microorganisms; compilation and hyper-text linking of museum records for fishes to permit analysis of expansions in the distributions of these species; and biological data on select invertebrates and micro-organisms.

This work is being coordinated with the Gulf and South Atlantic Regional Panel on Aquatic Invasive Species, Non-Indigenous Aquatic Species Resource for the US Geological Survey, to identify potential ecological impacts and provide basic taxonomic and biological information on these species. This work is also being coordinated with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and NatureServe to provide data for analytical purposes to better understand the threat of non-native organisms potentially threatening Gulf of Mexico ecosystems.

Workgroups

A cooperative program of state, federal agencies and the private sector administered by the
Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission.*

* Current site content modified from original content developed by the University of Southern Mississippi/College of Marine Sciences/Gulf Coast Research Laboratory through a grant administered by the Gulf of Mexico Program.