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Alabama-Mississippi Rapid Assessment Team |
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Mobile Bay Rapid Assessment Mississippi Rapid Assessment |
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Alabama Assessment 2003 Introduction Non-native species have been introduced, both intentionally and unintentionally, into habitats of the United States, and indeed world wide, for hundreds of years. Agricultural pests have long been recognized as a significant economic burden to our domestic farming industry. More recently, other non-native species have invaded our environment and produced significant economic and environmental concerns, including nutria, zebra mussels, giant salvinia, hydrilla, and water hyacinth to name a few. These species spread rapidly, produce serious environmental impacts, out compete native species, and result in economic and social losses to our nation. Broad efforts are underway nation-wide to combat the entry of new species into our country and to effectively control and manage those non-native species that have already made their way here. States have recognized their important role in addressing these issues through the passage of state legislation and the development of state aquatic invasive species plans. In order to effectively devise a program to address aquatic invasive species, it is first imperative to fully understand the status of invasive species in the region. One of the most effective, efficient, and timely approaches to establishing which non-native species are present is to conduct a rapid assessment. A rapid assessment is a sampling effort of short duration (1 to 3 days) in a targeted, well-defined geographic area. Individuals are recruited to conduct a variety of sampling activities including trawling, seine netting, hand netting, hand picking of animals, scraping of fouling organisms from surfaces, among others. The approach is to collect as many different organisms as possible, return the organisms to a laboratory for identification, separate native from non-native organisms, identify any non-native organisms as possible, and send those unidentified organisms to specialists for positive identification. The list of non-native species then forms the pool of potential invasive species. The Non-indigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990 (Act) established the National Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force (ANSTF). The responsibility of the ANSTF is to provide coordination among the various federal agencies that have authority and jurisdiction over aspects of management and control of aquatic invasive species. In addition, there are several non-federal members (Ex-officio) who are members of the ANSTF to provide additional input from the affected public. In order to achieve a full understanding of the aquatic invasive species across the nation, the Act also provides for the establishment of regional panels. The purpose of the panels is to establish regional priorities, identify aquatic invasive species of importance, and make recommendations from a regional perspective to the ANSTF. In 1999, the Gulf of Mexico Regional Panel on Aquatic Invasive Species (Gulf Panel) was established under the administrative support of the Gulf of Mexico Program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As of 2002, the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission now provides administration of the Gulf Panel. During the October 2002 meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Regional Panel, several members took it upon themselves to establish the Alabama-Mississippi Rapid Assessment Team (AMRAT) with the goal of conducting rapid assessments in Mississippi and Alabama coastal waters over a two year period, beginning with Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound areas just west of Mobile Bay and following with Mississippi Sound off the Mississippi coast. The AMRAT is comprised of representatives of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, the University of Southern Mississippi/College of Marine Sciences/Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources/Marine Resources Division, the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant College, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, and many others. This team is currently finalizing rapid assessment activities and time frames for Mobile Bay. All participants are sharing significant man-power, equipment, services, and supplies at nearly no cost to the project. Some support funding has been acquired through the Mobile Bay NEP and Mississippi Alabama Sea Grant.
Who do I contact? Mobile Bay National Estuary
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