Marine Invasive Species Monitoring Program – California Department of Fish and Game

The Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) conducts biological monitoring to determine the location and geographic ranges of introduced species in the California's coastal and estuarine waters.  The ongoing monitoring is also a mechanism to detect new introductions. 

For more information on the Marine Invasive Species Monitoring Program, including data, maps and reports, please visit OSPR’s Marine Invasive Species Monitoring Program Website.

Funded and Collaborative Research

The Marine Invasive Species Program (MISP) funds and collaborates on applied research projects that advance the development of strategies to prevent the introduction of nonindigenous species (NIS) from ballast water and vessel fouling.  In particular, the MISP targets research that addresses key information gaps that will improve management, including (but not limited to) the advancement of emerging technologies.

For summaries of any of the studies below, please see Chapter VI of the 2009 Biennial Report on the California Marine Invasive Species Program.

Vessel Fouling: Aquatic Bioinvasions Research and Policy Institute (ABRPI)

The ABRPI, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Portland State University, is conducting research aimed at understanding the transport and release of NIS via commercial vessel fouling. The MISP has funded several related ABRPI studies.

Completed Studies

• Implications of maritime vessel traffic patterns, wetted surface area and port connectivity for hull-mediated marine bioninvasions on the U.S. west coast
• Protocols for sampling commercial vessel biofouling using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV)
• Comparing methodologies for assessing vessel biofouling: Dry dock, diver and ROV sampling
• Commercial vessel biofouling extent and composition: Containerships sampled by diver and ROV survey

Studies Underway

• Appraisal and re-analysis of data from the hull fouling literature to provide a foundation of fouling-related knowledge and enable assessments of spatial and temporal variability of organism transport via the fouling vector
• Commercial vessel biofouling extent, composition and survivorship on barges.
• Fouling organism viability under varying environmental conditions (e.g. salinity, flow, temperature) characteristic of a vessel traveling to and between California ports

Visit the Aquatic Bioinvasions Research and Policy Institute website

Ballast Water Exchange Verification: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)

The Commission is currently collaborating with SERC to evaluate the use of the identified chemical components to evaluate whether proper ballast exchange has occurred on vessels arriving to the U.S. West Coast.  A goal of this project is to evaluate a prototype instrument, the Ballast Exchange Assurance Meter (BEAM), to measure CDOM in ballast samples.

Visit SERC’s Marine Invasions Research Laboratory website

Matson Navigation/ Ecochlor Inc.

In 2005, MISP provided funds to support the shipboard installation and evaluation of a chlorine dioxide ballast water treatment technology by Ecochlor Inc. onboard the integrated tug/barge Moku Pahu.  The vessel and system was accepted into the U.S. Coast Guard's Shipboard Technology Evaluation Program (STEP) in November of 2008, paving the way for biological evaluation.

American President Lines (APL)/NEI

Funds have been allocated for the installation and evaluation of a deoxygenation ballast water treatment system by NEI Treatment Systems, onboard the container ship APL England.  Work on this project began in the fall of 2008.

Glosten/Golden Bear (California Maritime Academy)

In 2008, the Commission allocated funding to support the development of a ballast water treatment technology testing and evaluation facility onboard the California Maritime Academy’s Training Ship Golden Bear.