The waters of the Plymouth Sound and Tamar Estuaries Marine Protected Area are to be better protected thanks to a new biosecurity plan – the first of its kind for a working port in the country.
The port of Plymouth is the first to have a plan to tackle the potentially devastating impact of invasive non-native species on industry, recreation and the marine environment itself.
The Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum (TECF), brought together marine industry representatives and marine biologists to plan how to avoid the potentially-devastating impacts of invasive non-native species.
The Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum is made up of all the authorities who collectively manage the Plymouth Sound and Tamar Estuaries Marine Protected Area and is run through Plymouth City Council.
The plan takes an estuary-wide approach to the problem, focusing on awareness of what to look out for, how to respond to new sightings of non-native species and how to reduce or prevent their spread.
The plan was developed in Plymouth through meetings and workshops, bringing together key players to produce a plan that is practical in the real world. It is hoped that individual marine businesses will use it to develop their own site-specific biosecurity plans.
Invasive non-native species may have wonderful names: pom-pom weed, Chinese mitten crab, Darwin’s barnacle, the carpet sea-squirt but transported outside their natural range, they can damage the environment or the economy.
In the marine environment, invasive non-native species usually arrive via shipping, either attached to hulls in ballast water, or with aquaculture imports.
The Port of Plymouth is an extremely busy area for shipping and recreational boating. In 2016 nearly 65,000 vessel movements were recorded, of which at least half were defence-related.
As a result, the Tamar Estuaries area is subject to high levels of local, national, European and international marine traffic, making it highly vulnerable to invasion by non-native species or exporting them to other areas.
The Slipper Limpet … affects the natural habitats locally by smothering the seabed with thick silty deposits
Because of the connectivity of the marine environment and the lifecycle of marine species, non-native species are extremely hard to control once they become established.
The plan aims to avoid them arriving in Plymouth and to avoid spreading species that are already here to other ports or estuaries.
The Slipper Limpet, for example, is believed to have been introduced to the UK accidentally with American oysters. It already affects the natural habitats locally by smothering the seabed with thick silty deposits.
The plan comes with an identification guide to non-native species in the Tamar Estuary, developed by experts from the Marine Biological Association.
“Preventing the arrival and spread of new invasive non-native species is critically important.”
Christine Wood, researcher from the MBA said:
“Preventing the arrival and spread of new invasive non-native species is critically important. Due to the high levels of maritime traffic including international and cross-channel traffic, the Tamar Estuaries area is extremely vulnerable to the arrival of new ones.
“We are currently watching out for here in the South West is the Asian brush-clawed shore crab, which has recently invaded estuaries in the South East and East Anglia. It can out-compete our native shore crab and may also impact shellfish farms by eating young stock.”
In other parts of the world, serious economic harm has been caused by non-native species which have grown very rapidly in their new environment, smothering other marine life, boat hulls and mussel farms, for example.
Carl Necker, the Queen’s Harbour Master for the Dockyard Port of Plymouth and chair of the TECF said:
“Plymouth is a strategic port both military and commercially. It is also used extensively by a diverse range of recreational water users. It is everyone’s concern to be aware of the threats these species pose.
“Marinas, sailing clubs, anglers, divers and sailors can all help keep our waters special by reporting any unusual species and putting simple measures in place to prevent the spread of these unwelcome wildlife visitors.”
Sarah Brown, principal consultant at C2W who has worked on the Tamar plan said:
“The biosecurity planning process is a great way to bring people together to share both concerns and actions.
“If one site decides to take steps to protect itself from invasive species that is great, but when people and organisations across an area join forces and work together it is much more effective.”
Angela Gall, Natural England’s regional marine lead advisor said:
“Plymouth Sound and the Tamar Estuaries are a Marine Protected Area and are internationally recognised for the importance of their marine species and habitats.
“We funded this important work to raise awareness of non-native species and how to avoid their potential impacts. We hope it will be seen as best practice by other estuaries around the country.”
The plan, which will be driven and monitored by the Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum, can be downloaded from their website www.plymouth-mpa.uk/home/managing-the-mpa/projects-research
