Colonial Sea Squirt
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Scientific Name:
Didemnum vexillum Kott, 2002 (Stefaniak et al. 2009)Common Name:
Colonial sea squirt, ascidian, colonial tunicate, compound sea squirt, carpet sea squirtPhoto:
Sea squirt, adult - Photo by U.S. Geological Survey Native To:
Unknown, possibly Japan (Lambert 2009)
Date of U.S. Introduction:
First confirmed sighting in 1993 (Lambert 2009)
Means of Introduction:
Introductions likely due to shipping (either via hull or sea chest fouling) (Lambert 2009)
Impact:
Forms dense colonies that can smother native species (Bullard et al. 2007)
Current U.S. Distribution:
Coastal New England, Coastal Pacific Northwest
Images
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Google.
Videos
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Google. YouTube; Great Britain Non-Native Species Secretariat.
Selected Resources
The section below contains selected highly relevant resources for this species, organized by source. To view all related content for this species, click on "View all resources for species" in the top left of this page.
Council or Task Force
Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office. Washington Invasive Species Council.
See also: Outreach and Educational Materials - Invasive Species Fact Sheets for more resources
Partnership
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.
See also: Alien Species Alert for more information
IUCN. Species Survival Commission. Invasive Species Specialist Group.
San Francisco Estuary Institute; Center for Research on Aquatic Bioinvasions.
Texas State University System. Texas Invasive Species Institute.
Federal Government
Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Marine Invasions Research Lab.
International Government
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (Australia).
State and Local Government
Academic
Columbia University. Center for Environmental Research and Conservation.
University of Washington. Washington Sea Grant Program.
Citations
- Bullard, S.G., G. Lambert, M.R. Carman, J. Byrnes, R.B. Whitlatch, G. Ruiz, R.J. Miller, L. Harris, P.C. Valentine, J.S. Collie, J. Pederson, D.C. McNaught, A.N. Cohen, R.G. Asch, J. Dijkstra, and K. Heinonen. 2007. The colonial ascidian Didemnum sp. A: Current distribution, basic biology and potential threat to marine communities of the northeast and west coasts of North America. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 342(1):99-108.
- Lambert, G. 2009. Adventures of a sea squirt sleuth: unraveling the identity of Didemnum vexillum, a global ascidian invader. Aquatic Invasions 4(1):5-28.
- Stefaniak, L., G. Lambert, A. Gittenberger, H. Zhang, S. Lin, and R.B. Whitlatch. 2009. Genetic conspecificity of the worldwide populations of Didemnum vexillum Kott, 2002. Aquatic Invasions 4(1):29-44.