Green Economy in a Blue World-Full Report

Comb jelly ( Mnemiopsis leidyi) is spreading in the European seas

in a Blue World

B A R E N T S S E A

Altitudes in metres

1 000 2 000 3 000

WHITE SEA

NORWEGIAN SEA

0 200 500

Volga

NORTH SEA

Area of spread of the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi

BALTIC SEA

ARAL SEA

Volga

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Don

ENGLISH CHANNEL

Volga

Don

CASPIAN

B L A C K S E A

SEA

ADRIATIC SEA

AEGAN SEA

Source: Daisie database, accessed in September 2011; adapted from Panov, 2008; base map by Philippe Rekacewicz.

M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A

0

1 000 km

500

3.3.3 Strengthening the legal framework to effectively address aquatic invasive species The diverse and widespread impact of aquatic invasive species means that they can affect marine and freshwater ecosystems, and the livelihoods and economies which depend upon them, virtually everywhere on earth. Invasive species threaten biodiversity, marine industries and human health. The global economic impacts of invasive aquatic species, including through disruption to fisheries, fouling of coastal industry and infrastructure, and interference with human amenity, have been estimated at US$100 billion per year, while the projected response costs are merely in the range of four per cent of the impact (Chisholm, 2004). Some of the major achievements since the call for urgent action from the 1992 Earth Summit include the adoption by IMO of the International Convention for the Management and Control of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments 2004. Substantial progress has also been made in building national capacities to implement and comply with the Ballast Water Convention through the two phases of the GEF/UNDP/IMO GloBallast programme. The Convention will enter into force after ratification by 30 States, representing 35 per cent of world merchant shipping tonnage. The

30 States which at present have ratified the Convention represent 26.44 per cent of world merchant shipping tonnage and the entry-into- force conditions are likely to be met in 2012. However, the problem still remains. The rate of marine bio-invasions has been reported as being as high as up to one every nine weeks and over 80 per cent of the world’s 232 marine ecoregions reported the presence of invasive species. On the bright side, a recent Canadian government study of invasions in the great lakes showed that, since Canada (and the US) imposed strict ballast-water management measures, there has been no documented invasion (FAOCS, 2011). The invasion of the European zebramussel in the North American Great Lakes, the Asian golden mussel in the inland waterways of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay threatening the whole Amazon basin, the comb jellyfish in the Black and Caspian Seas are classic examples of bio-invasions, mainly mediated through ballast water and hull fouling. The severe economic and ecological impacts of these invasions provide some of the starkest case studies of the devastating effects of aquatic invasive species. Unlike environmental impacts from pollution and habitat loss, invasive species once introduced and established, can rarely if ever be reversed and/or eradicated. Without

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