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Home My WebLink AboutApril 24, 2003 - People & creatures on the move The Suffolk Times • April 24, 2003 �O ^ C cre a ure s on e move rt� , � r� a g�� G3 ,., - � �, � �� i Z � � :� � a3 � ��' :��+� . � � � � �� " � �� °� -$ �`""�.� � � ; ,�w � ��' �� , �;� �' � � s; �r � � . � . �� e �� . � ��. .:�,�_ " �� Times/Review photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh This photograph shows three stages of the Asian shore crab, a foreign invad- er that's showing up in our local waters. It eats just about any marine life you can think of as well as marsh grasses and various types of seaweed. It's starting to take over the once-dominant green crab's chosen ground. Who knows what the final impact of this relative newcomer to our area will be? YE.axs Aco whc;n I graduated trom Germany or Italy on class trips as Southold High School there were well.In addition to this,all sorts of hoys and girls in my class who hac] people move from country to country never been farther than Riverhead on business or pleasure trips. and a senior trip to Washington was a With all this traveling back and monumental event.Since that time b0 forth between the countries of the yc��rs ago,the world has grown small- world,we create problems never er and smaller. dreamt of before.Some involve dis- Today our eases.Some involve insects and still local high school others are waiting far the correct FOC(J$ sports teams time and place to emerge.And so the ON travel to Florida whole world has become our"next- or Texas to play door neighbor."Whether it's by air- NATU RE in competition craft,boat,land or the winds of fate, by Paul and think noth- we are unknowingly starting to bring Stoutenburgh ing of it. problems back from the far corners Language class- of the world. Other countries are es visit ex ericncin� the same situation. It proba y arrive in the bilge or ballast water of a ship. In the ship- about 1 1/4 inches long with a spotted ping industry when an empty cargo black body and long black-and-white ship gets ready to return it takes on antennae.It bores into trees and seawater.'I1iis makes the return trip a eventually destroys them. much smoother ride.Then when it Barbara and I can remember dear- �e reason I use these examples as �ets near its homeport,it wants to ly when we landed in New Zealand an introduction is that I want to take take on cargo again so it pumps its for a camping trip a few years ago: � you down the path to our little dock bilge filled with all sorts of foreign Before we were allowed off the plane in Mud Creek.Here our daughter marine life,including these Asian the stewardesses,with handkerchiefs occasionally collects killies,shrimp shore crabs,into the local water. covering their noses,came through and little crabs for her saltwater tank 'I'his crab has the potential to spraying the inside of the plane. at school.It's a way Evidentl New Zealand didn't want expand its numbers and range.It y to get kids interest- make.s up for its comparatively short any foreign bugs in their country. ed in the fish and Many of you have had fruit,vegeta- three-year life span by reproducing shellfish found in several times a year,more than most bles and flowers taken away when our local waters. crossing the border to Canada in an Three years ago crabs,and produces 50,000 to�6,000 eflort to prevent foreign invaders she brought me a eggs per hatch,hundreds of times into that country. crab she had never more than other species like our mud T1�e elm was one of the most state- crab or green crab.The female can seen before. It had hold the male sperm up to two years. ly of all our trees.It was attacked anci a syuare-shaped you can see why their population is destroyed by the Dutch elm disease. shell with three exploding. A disease from overseas also s��ines on each side.Its claws had '�ey are vicious predators and destroyed the American chestnut. sn1all red spots apd its legs had altcr- �hey'll take on anything:juvenile Most people who buy chestnuts lor nate light and dark bands. Its shell crabs,scallops,clams,oysters,fish, thc holidays don't realize they'rc gel- ranges from a mottled dcep brown to snails,mussels,ete.,all fall prey to this ting an import,not the American purple with hinls of orange,green new invader.They even eat marsh chestnut that's long since been �llld pink.Its most identifiable feature grasses and various seaweeds.We're destroyed. is a small hard bubble at the crux of Let's not o that far hack in time. told when an Asian shore crab meets � its claws. a green crab,the shore crab immedi- Today our nativc hemlocks are under �re checked it out and founci it to ately attacks and clips off the green be a new introducccl spcci��. th�� crab's claws wilh a quick bite. Interesting to note,the green crab was itself an introduced species from thc British Isles at the time of the attack by another foreign invader,thc Civil Wat-. hemlock woolly adelgid.I told last WItIt 8II tI11S tl'8V@Illlg 'l�ere is concern about what these week of all the hemlocks I had plant- baC{( 811d fOYtll ci-abs will do to the lobster industry. ed on our property now dead due to between the countries ��nce again it's the juveniles we're that disease. concerned about.I've seen these And how about your dogwoods? of the world, we create small lobst�;rs in the rocky shallows Have you noticed many of them are problems never dreamt oP our Sound.A male adult Asian slowly succumbing to a disease that of before. shore crab was found in a lobster gets under the bark and eventually trap 12 feet below the surface in kills the tree,and I hardl need to Long Island Sound.Those studying mention the lhis crab say that if one three-inch European gypsy Asian shore crab got together with a moth that's done so young lobster,it could rip the lobster much damage to to pieces.Can you imagine what they our trees through Asian shore crab.Just this week we might do to the marine life in our defoliation. found a small,half-inch-size one hid- creeks,our bays and our Sound? It's Though we havc ing in a bunch of mussels along the really scary and yet we don't know not been botherccl marsh and a one-inch crab in a killie exactly what to do about it.Another tra A bi c,r one—threc to four here in our area p' �g� problem is that it competes for the with the zebra mus- inches—is in the school saltwater food of our resident species that also sel,I'm sure many tank.'I'hese three are shown in the inhabit the intertidal zone.Where of you have read about the harm it's Photo. once there was a diversity of species A student on a field trip first found done in the St.Lawrencc River and of crabs along our shores there are its tributaries.The mussel not only this Asian shore crab in New Jersey now mostly Asian shore crabs.Keep takes over the local habitat of native in 1988.Since then it has traveled your eyes out for this invader to our species but it also causes all sorts of along the whole eastern seaboard.In local waters. 1994 it was found fi�om the Bronx to damage. It grows in clumps that clog P.S.Jim House,a charter boat cap- outlet pipes and boat intakes. It,loo, Urient Point.Can you imagine,here tain,tells me that one good thing in our little creek we found this is a recenlly inlroduced species. about this invader is that they make invader.How do thcse things get One of the area's newest invaders great bait for sea bass and black fish. is Che Asian long-horned beetle.It is here? Hc found them to be as�oocl as �hc tra�i�i��nal ,r, , �rabs.