Standard Methods for Sampling North American Freshwater Fishes, second edition

Chapter 17: Preventing the Spread of Aquatic Invasive Species while Sampling

Stewart Jacks, Barak Shemai, Leah C. Elwell, David K. Britton, Douglas A. Jensen, and Jonathan Thompson

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781934874769.ch17

This chapter focuses on measures to prevent, minimize, and control the spread of potentially harmful aquatic invasive species inadvertently transported by natural resource professionals, which undermines conservation driven goals. It is imperative to understand the pathways that humans create and strive to eliminate (when possible) or minimize the potential damage that may result from our actions. A combination of technologies, education, codes of conduct, and government oversight, as recommended by the Ecological Society of America, can prevent invasive species introductions from pathways that already exist (Lodge et al. 2006). All aspects of natural resources work can be examined for their potential to spread and introduce invasive species, and practical measures can be easily adopted to address these. Ultimately, a purposeful prevention strategy for stopping unintentional species introductions will promote responsible natural resource management.

Invasive species have a substantial impact on natural resource management. The economic cost of invasive species in the United States of America is an estimated US$219 billion annually (Pimentel 2011). Globally, McLeod et al. (2015) estimate that invasive species cost an estimated $1.4 trillion in damages annually. The minimum reported costs of biological invasions from 1970 to 2017 worldwide was estimated at $1.288 trillion, and these costs are highly attributed to North America (Diagne et al. 2021).