New Zealand-Caribbean

[Ken Kinman]

Geoff,
     Just because Bathymodiolus species are hydrothermal vent specialists
(at least as adults) does not mean that their larvae cannot be transported
in ship ballast water.  Especially 20th Century ships which might have
enough sulphur contaminants to keep even adults alive along enough to
transport.
     And if they have non-feeding larvae, such transport would be even
easier.  For all we know oil tankers might attract the larvae of such
mussels (like insects are to pheromones), and be transporting them all over
the place.  So much we don't know.
          ----- Cheers,   Ken
******************************************
>From: Geoff Read <g.read at NIWA.CO.NZ>
>Reply-To: Geoff Read <g.read at NIWA.CO.NZ>
>To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
>Subject: Re: New Zealand-Caribbean
>Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 17:27:31 +1300
>
> >       If these mussels and corals have only been recently discovered
>around
> > these western Pacific Islands, how do we know they weren't introduced
>there by
> > whaling ships in the 19th Century?---or perhaps even more likely,
>warships of
> > the 20th Century travelling through the Panama Canal from the Caribbean
>to the
> > Western Pacific.  Didn't the zebra mussel get introduced into North
>America via
> > ship ballast water?                 ------ Ken Kinman
>
>Wrong sort of mussel and coral. These Kermadec seamounts aren't land
>islands with fringing reefs.  They are recently discovered active or
>inactive
>submarine volcanoes associated with the Pacific-Australia plate
>convergence. The tops are 250 m to 1600 m below sealevel.  And the
>mussel is a Bathymodiolus species, a hydrothermal specialist genus.
>
>
>--
>   Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.co.nz>
>   http://www.annelida.net/


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