Monitoring and Mapping of Invasive Aquatic Species Transported with Shipping as Vector

Paper in proceeding, 2024

Shipping facilitates the transfer of aquatic organisms between different sea areas and enables invasive
species to cross their natural dispersion limits. In this work we illustrate possible ways to trace and
predict species invasions using ship traffic data. First, we exemplify with two sea squirts (growing attached to surfaces and ship hulls), by tracing back the traffic pattern at the time of their introduction.
Secondly, the motile blue crab is used as an example to identify the data and information needed to
predict possible locations for coming invasions. The cases are based on i) historical ship traffic data
from Automated Information System (AIS) ii) recent or expected invaders for a certain location and iii)
ports in the Northeast Atlantic with high risk for receiving invasive species. Within the growing and
dynamic shipping industry both routes and number of ships for specific routes will change over time
which also is illustrated in this work. In the end we summarize parameters that needs to be considered
for work with ship traffic-based predictions of invasive species.