An invasion is under way that is endangering America’s most precious natural treasures. The intruders are exotic species — non-native plants and animals introduced into the country either intentionally or by accident. Invasive species are one of the leading threats to U.S. ecosystems and may cause devastating economic, environmental, and human impacts. The following 10 animal species are considered to be among America’s Least Wanted:

1. Africanized Honeybee

Africanized Honeybee Photo credit: Timothy Haley / USDA Forest Service, USDA

• Native to: Africa, south of the Sahara
• Aliases: Apis mellifera scutellata, killer bee, African honeybee, Brazilian bee
• First Offense in U.S.: Texas, 1990
• Invaded/Established in: 10 southern states, from California to Florida

Violations: Accidentally released during a breeding experiment in Brazil in the 1950s, Africanized honeybees have steadily migrated northward across South and Central America and into the southern part of the United States.

Though they bear a close resemblance to their more docile European cousins, Africanized honeybees are far more dangerous to humans and animals because of their extreme aggression. Quick to attack in large numbers, they react to disturbances 10 times faster, causing victims to receive 10 times as many stings as they normally would from the European strain. Intensely defensive of their hive, they will chase a person a quarter of a mile or more in order to protect it. Their tendency to outcompete and displace other pollinators is negatively affecting the honey industry, which carries an annual value of $140 million in the United States. The bees also affect the general pollination of orchards and field crops, with an annual value of $10 billion. Africanized honeybees continue their expansion, but so far, the colder northern climate keeps them confined to the southern states.

2. Asian Carp

Asian Carp

• Native to: Eastern Asia
• Aliases: (four species) grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), and black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus)
• First Offense in U.S.: grass carp: 1963; bighead, silver, and black carp: 1970s
• Invaded/Established in: 10 southern states, from California to Florida

Violations: All species were brought into the United States from Asia to manage water quality and vegetation in catfish aquaculture in the South. After escaping from southern fish farms during flooding, these four species of Asian carp rapidly worked their way north along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers and their tributaries and could very soon reach the Great Lakes. They pose a significant threat to the Great Lakes because they are large, extremely prolific, and consume vast amounts of food.

Weighing up to 100 pounds, they can grow to a length of more than 4 feet and may live up to 30 years. Their keenly competitive nature is likely to have a detrimental effect on the food chain that supports the native fish, as they could eventually become a dominant species in the Great Lakes. Such an invasion would have devastating effects on valuable fisheries, bringing many to the point of extinction.

Asian carp also pose an actual physical threat to boaters, as they commonly leap out of the water, crashing into boats and hitting people. There have been numerous reports of people injured by flying carp on the Missouri River, to the point where it is now necessary for boaters to carry personal protection in addition to standard boating safety equipment. It’s possible that a boater could be knocked unconscious, fall out of his boat, and drown.

3. Asian Longhorned Beetle

Asian Longhorned Beetle Photo credit: USDA, Dennis Haugen / USDA Forest Service

• Native to: China and Korea
• Aliases: Anoplophora glabripennis, starry sky beetle
• First Offense in U.S.: New York, 1996
• Invaded/Established in: New York, New Jersey, and Chicago

Violations: It is believed that Asian longhorned beetles entered the United States in wood pallets holding pipe shipped from China for a sewer project in the late 1980s, though the first infestation of trees wasn’t reported until 1996. The Chinese government has so far been unable to control this pest in its native China, so the U.S. government is gravely concerned about the damage it may do to American forests. This beetle attacks and kills many hardwood trees, such as maple, elm, horse chestnut, ash, birch, poplar, willow, and many more. It could significantly disrupt the forest ecosystem if it becomes established over a large area. As these trees represent billions of dollars to the U.S. economy by supplying lumber, wood, paper, and maple syrup, among other products, there is an all-out war on this insect. More than 6,000 infested trees have been cut down and destroyed in an effort to eradicate the beetle from New York, as well as more than 1,500 trees in Chicago and more than 600 in New Jersey. Despite the efforts to eradicate this assassin, infested trees continue to be discovered.

4. Brown Tree Snake

Brown Tree Snake Photo credit: Gordon Rodda / U.S. Geological Survey

• Native to: Solomon Islands, New Guinea, Australia, Indonesia
• Aliases: Boiga irregularis, night tiger
• First Offense in U.S.: Guam (U.S. Territory), 1953
• Invaded/Established in: Guam; sighted but not yet known to be established in Hawaii and Texas

Violations: After World War II, this stealthy intruder was accidentally introduced to Guam, apparently hitching a ride on military cargo returning from New Guinea. Since then, its population on the island has exploded to approximately 13,000 snakes per square mile. This rapacious predator has eliminated most of Guam’s lizard and bat species and has brought 10 of its 13 native bird species to extinction, including the flightless rail. The snake also poses a threat to humans, especially children. Its venom is weak, but the snake has bitten several hundred Guamanians, most often while the victim is sleeping. It has also caused significant economic damage with its penchant for scaling electrical and telephone lines and infiltrating transformers, causing massive blackouts. Since 1978, more than 1,200 power outages on Guam have been caused by the brown tree snake, at a cost of $1 million per year. A master of contortion, it can coil itself into a small, very confined hiding space, conveniently stowing away on planes and ships.

As of yet, the brown tree snake has not formed a self-sustaining population in Hawaii, though individual snakes have been reported. Officials worry that as Hawaii and Guam share similar climate and wildlife, many of the same negative ecological and economic consequences would arise in Hawaii if the snake were to become established there.

5. European Green Crab

European Green Crab Photo credit: Andrew Cohen / www.exoticsguide.org

• Native to: the Atlantic coasts of Europe and northern Africa; from Norway and the British Isles south to Mauritania
• Aliases: Carcinus maenas, shore crab, Joe Rocker
• First Offense in U.S.: East Coast, 1817; West Coast, 1989
• Invaded/Established in: East Coast from Maine to Virginia and entire West Coast

Violations: This highly aggressive crustacean is one of the most successful invasive predators in coastal ecosystems, with populations established on five continents. Its vast environmental tolerance and high reproductive capacity have allowed the crab to extend its range on the West Coast by nearly 500 miles in less than 10 years, and it is currently expanding northward. Acutely skilled in its foraging behavior, the green crab has been shown to be capable of learning and improving upon its food-gathering techniques. It has a remarkable ability to open bivalve shells in more ways than other crabs, causing it to be much quicker and more dexterous than most. But this crab doesn’t stop at mollusks. It also preys on marine worms, small crustaceans, juvenile crabs, and shellfish. The annual estimated economic damage to shellfish production is $44 million, and the green crab has been blamed for the collapse of the soft-shell crab industry in Maine. With its ability to outcompete native shore crabs and its insatiable appetite, the green crab can fundamentally alter community structure in coastal ecosystems.

6. European Starling

European Starling Photo credit: Gene Oleynik, Lee Karney / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

• Native to: Eurasia
• Aliases: Sturnus vulgaris, common starling, English starling
• First Offense in U.S.: New York, 1890
• Invaded/Established in: all 50 states

Violations: In an attempt to introduce all birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s writings to North America, 50 pairs of European starlings were released in 1890 in New York’s Central Park. Quick to adapt, these birds have since become one of the most abundant and widespread avian species in the United States, with an estimated 200 million now found over most of North America, Mexico, and parts of the Caribbean. Living in large flocks, starlings have been found to have serious detrimental effects on native bird populations, such as red-bellied and Gila woodpeckers, bluebirds, and swallows. Starlings compete with these native species for nest cavities in trees, rather than excavating their own. Ruthless thieves, they displace the native birds by stealing nesting habitats, often destroying eggs and killing fledglings in the process.

7. European Wild Boar

European Wild Boar Photo credit: Jim Mitchell/ISSG Global Invasive Species Database, USDA

• Native to: Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, Japan, and the Malayan Islands
• Aliases: Sus scrofa, wild hog, feral pig, feral hog, Old World swine, razorback, Eurasian wild boar, Russian wild boar
• First Offense in U.S.: Florida, 1539; Hawaii, late 18th century
• Invaded/Established in: 23 states

Violations: First brought to North America by Spanish explorers to be used as domestic pigs, European wild boars have since formed feral populations that wreak havoc on the ecosystems they inhabit. These secretive, highly adaptive opportunists seek out and destroy native plant communities without regard for rare or endangered status. By rooting the forest floor and wallowing in wetland areas, they raze the vegetation that both prevents erosion and provides food and habitat for native wildlife. They have destroyed breeding sites and degraded key habitats of several endangered amphibians, and pose a serious threat to coastal nesting areas for marine turtles. Their ravenous consumption of food upon which other forest species depend has had a direct negative impact on native animals. As agricultural pests, they cause an estimated loss of 20,000 tons of sugarcane each year. There are also growing concerns among farmers about the spread of infection and parasites to domestic livestock. Wild boars are vectors of several serious diseases, including pseudorabies, which is fatal in panthers; swine brucellosis, which can be fatal in people; and trichinosis, a foodborne disease caused by a parasitic worm that lodges in the animal’s muscle tissue. The disease may be passed to humans who consume infected, undercooked meat and can be fatal if not treated. As the feral hog population continues to breed with escaped domestic stock, their genetic diversity continues to widen.

8. Nutria

Nutria Photo credit: Aurelio Perrone / Applied Ecology Research Center

• Native to: South America
• Aliases: Myocastor coypus, coypu, coypu rat, swamp beaver, nutria rat
• First Offense in U.S.: California, 1899
• Invaded/Established in: 40 states

Violations: Introduced to California at the tail end of the 19th century, this relative of the beaver was initially bred for fur farming. But when the market for nutria fur proved soft, many breeders released the rodents into the wild. Wildlife agencies unwittingly served to compound what would become a huge problem by introducing the herbivore into other areas of the United States to control noxious weeds. Armed with a voracious appetite, this semiaquatic mammal is charged with the destruction of thousands of acres of wetland habitat. The nutria contributes to coastal erosion, ravaging as much as 40 square miles of Louisiana’s coastal marshes each year. Areas once heavily vegetated have been chewed away, thereby destroying nesting environments for many birds and eliminating critical nursery habitats for juvenile shrimp, crabs, oysters, countless species of fish, and other animals. The perpetrator has also been extremely destructive in the mid-Atlantic states, primarily on the Delmarva Peninsula. The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in the Chesapeake Bay area loses approximately 500 to 1,000 acres per year from nutria damage. Highly prolific and without natural enemies, the nutria continues to expand its geographic range at an alarming rate.

9. Red Imported Fire Ant

Red Imported Fire Ant Photo credit: USDA APHIS PPQ Archives

• Native to: Brazil
• Aliases: Solenopsis invicta, fire ant, “RIFA”
• First Offense in U.S.: Alabama, 1930s
• Invaded/Established in: 13 states from North Carolina to California and Puerto Rico

Violations: Thought to have hitched a ride to the United States in ship ballast from South America, the red imported fire ant is an extremely destructive, highly invasive, and notoriously aggressive stinging ant that is impossible to eradicate once established. Since its arrival, the species has infested over 300 million acres across the southern United States, despite federal quarantine measures. Red imported fire ants pose a serious threat to human health, as large numbers of them will rapidly swarm and relentlessly sting anything unfortunate enough to disturb them. In the United States, millions of people are stung each year, and more than 80 have died. Deaths are mainly attributed to hypersensitivity to the ants’ venom, and children are most at risk. These ants also threaten livestock, pets, and wildlife, causing serious declines in biodiversity, and damage crops, ornamental plants, electrical equipment, and irrigation systems. Though the United States spends billions of dollars per year in an effort to control this invader, it is truly a creature that lives up to its Latin name, “invicta,” which means “invincible.”

10. Zebra Mussel

Zebra Mussel Photo credit: D. Jude / Univ. of Michigan

• Native to: the Balkans, Poland, and the former Soviet Union
• Aliases: Dreissena polymorpha
• First Offense in U.S.: Lake Claire, Michigan, 1988
• Invaded/Established in: waterways of 20 states

Violations: Catching a lift from Eastern Europe aboard freighters, zebra mussels reached the U.S.-Canadian border in the late 1980s and rapidly spread to 20 states. These prodigious filter feeders severely affect native mussels and clams by interfering with their feeding, growth, movement, respiration, and reproduction. In just one day, a single zebra mussel can filter out nearly all the phyto- and zooplankton in a quart of water. By removing these important food sources, the mussels efficiently starve native populations. Their proclivity to attach themselves to any hard surface means they will colonize a clam or mussel to such an extent that it cannot open its shell to eat. They may also attach to slow-moving species such as crayfish and turtles. Zebra mussels also pose severe problems to humans. They infiltrate and destroy boat hulls, engines, cooling systems, and water pipes. Studies have shown that zebra mussels accumulate pollutants such as PCBs in their tissues in concentrations 300,000 times greater than in the environment. When passed up the food chain, this may present serious health hazards to humans. As a single adult female can produce up to 100,000 eggs per year, the species is spreading at an alarming rate. Its impact on industries, businesses, and communities has cost an estimated $5 billion in 10 years.

Herring eggs laid during the mass spawning.

Herring eggs laid during the mass spawning. To make LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA, veteran British filmmaker Rodger Jackman had to figure out how to work amid the pounding waves, howling winds, and harsh weather that are the hallmark of British Columbia’s Bamfield Marine Station, headquarters of the production. “I knew it was going to be tough,” Jackman says. “You simply can’t take delicate cameras out into 20-foot waves that can deliver the force of a car driving into a brick wall at 90 miles per hour.”

In addition, Jackman notes, divers carrying cameras are often unable to approach many animals without scaring them off or dramatically changing their behavior — a major problem for a filmmaker interested in capturing a creature’s natural habits. So, to put his starring actors in a comfortable situation where they could be easily filmed, Jackman constructed an elaborate set of aquaria in a makeshift studio: the marine station’s boat shed. The largest, which was 10 feet deep and four feet wide, required more than a ton of sand and rocks and took about three days to build and stock with animals. “If you set up and maintain the tanks properly,” he says, “many animals will go about their business quite naturally.”

Most importantly, Jackman believes that working in a studio situation allows filmmakers to capture scenes that would be virtually impossible to record in the wild. For instance, a dramatic sequence in LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA shows immense schools of herring spawning in coastal waters, which become milky from the billions of eggs and sperm. “Once the spawning started, the water was so milky you literally couldn’t see the fish unless they swam up against the lens,” he remembers.

Nudibranchs live among the kelp forests.

“So to complement the wild footage,” Jackman continues, “we put a relatively small school of fish in the big tank and then, when they started to spawn at about four in the morning, filmed them until they made even that tank too milky to see.” Using the aquaria, Jackman’s team was also able to capture the gracefully arcing jets of sperm and eggs released by sea urchins and the equally captivating mating habits of barnacles. Over the course of two years, the film was assembled by quilting intimate scenes together with footage that could be captured only in the wild, such as a 9-foot-long giant octopus snagging a crab in its tentacles and ghostly, soft-bodied nudibranchs drifting from kelp stalks.

Producer: Ronnie Godeanu
Art Director: Sabina Daley
Writer: David Malakoff
Graphic Art: Lenny Drozner
Technical Director: Brian Lee
Scientific Consultant: Gianna Savoie

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Carmen DiRienzo, Vice President and Managing Director, Corporate Affairs.

© 1998 Thirteen/WNET New York

All Rights Reserved

Television Credits

A Rodger Jackman Production for Thirteen/WNET New York and BBC-TV

Funder Credits

Funding for the TV series NATURE is made possible in part by Park Foundation. Major corporate support is provided by Canon U.S.A., Inc., Ford Motor Company, and TIAA-CREF. Additional support is provided by the nation’s public television stations.

We recommend these Web sites for those interested in the subjects shown on the program. All links are valid as of December 28, 2000.

By the Sea
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/canwaters-eauxcan/bbb-lgb/school-ecole/activities/index_e.asp#lessons
An introduction to 11 ecosystems within the coastal zone of Eastern Canada.

Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
http://www.cabrilloaq.org/
A Los Angeles area aquarium has an event calendar and educational activities for kids.

Bamfield Marine Station
http://www.bms.bc.ca/
General information about the station where LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA was filmed.

British Columbia Creature Page
http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/kerryw/creature/creat.htm
A guide to aquatic animals.

Seaweb
http://www.seaweb.org/
Links to ocean advocacy and educational groups and a calendar for 1998, the Year of the Ocean.

Intertidal Life of Puget Sound: A Beach Walk
http://www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/beaches/beachwalk/
A well-illustrated interactive beach walk.

Tides & Tide Prediction
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/tide/
A site with terrific resources for predicting tides around the world.

The Intertidal Zone
http://www.needham.mec.edu/NPS_Web_docs/ High_School/cur/N/n4/title.html
A online class project by ninth-grade students.

Print Resources

For those interested in the subjects shown in LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA, we recommend the following books.

Chinery, Michael, Wayne Ford, Mick Loates, and Myke Taylor. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT SEASHORE ANIMALS. New York: Kingfisher Books, 1994.

Carwardine. Mark. SEE & EXPLORE: WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND PORPOISES. New York: DK Publishing, 1992.

Cooper, Ann, and Dorothy Emerling. WILD WONDERS: ALONG THE SEASHORE. Roberts Rinehart Publishing, 1997.

Ganeri, Anita. THE OCEANS ATLAS. New York: DK Publishing, 1994.

Gunzi, Christiane. LOOK CLOSER: TIDE POOL. New York: DK Publishing, 1998.

Little, Colin, and J. A. Kitching. THE BIOLOGY OF ROCKY SHORES. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Ricketts, Edward Flanders. BETWEEN PACIFIC TIDES. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.

Silver, Donald M., and Patricia J. Wynne. ONE SMALL SQUARE: SEASHORE. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.

Snively, Gloria. EXPLORING THE SEASHORE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON AND OREGON. Gordon Soules Book Publishing, 1983.

Steele, Philip. SEE & EXPLORE: SHARKS AND OTHER MONSTERS OF THE DEEP. New York: DK Publishing, 1998.

Wareham, Bill. BRITISH COLUMBIA WILDLIFE VIEWING GUIDES. Falcon Publishing Company, 1994.

Wertheim, Anne. THE INTERTIDAL WILDERNESS. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1984.

Where the sea meets the land, life is abundant.

Where the sea meets the land, life is abundant. More than half of the world’s human population lives within a few dozen miles of a coastline, and many other land animals often find their way to the continental margins as well. In LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA, bears can be seen wandering the rocky coast, scooping up small crabs. The nipping crustaceans provide a nutritious addition to the bear’s diet, particularly early in the year when fruits and berries are not yet plentiful. Mink also poke around the tide pools looking for treats.

It is birds, however, that have developed the most acrobatic style of preying on seafood. In a kind of take-out dining, crows and gulls will pick up tough-shelled clams, mussels, or crabs in their beaks and carry them high into the air, then drop them, like bombs, to shatter onto the rocks below.

These bombardiers need to be careful, however: they must go high enough to ensure that the plummet breaks the shell, but not so high that another bird can steal their meal. Such thieves are everywhere along the coast: even the majestic bald eagle often bullies other fish-eating birds into dropping their catch in order to scoop it up for themselves. These encounters only add to the constant turmoil that makes life where the ocean meets the land so captivating. Like a wave that crests, sinks, and then builds again, the edge of the sea constantly replenishes itself, creating new and endlessly enthralling patterns.

Sea urchins and a sea star. Imagine waking up in the morning submerged in freezing water, spending your afternoon baking beneath a merciless sun, and ending the day battered by 10-foot waves that smash into you with the force of a hundred hammer blows — all the while fending off attacks from neighbors intent on making you their next meal. Such is the challenging everyday life of the remarkable creatures featured in the NATURE program LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA. This film, which took two years to create, is a vivid portrait of life — and death — in the tide pools and bays along Canada’s rugged Pacific coast.

Researchers have long marveled at the life that flourishes in the narrow band where the sea flings itself against the edge of the continent. Mussels, barnacles, and anemones carpet rocks and sand flats, crabs hide under every stone, and fish and sea stars lurk in forests of kelp and sea grass, eager for a meal. But amidst pounding waves and powerful tides, these plants and animals must find a way to hang on — or risk being tossed high onto the beach or swept out to sea. Those that find footholds are rewarded with a daily feast of food and oxygen, delivered by the rising tide.

When the tide recedes, however, the feast may be followed by famine and danger: without their protective blanket of water, residents of the tidal zone are exposed to extreme conditions, from summer’s broiling sun to winter’s freezing winds.

A barnacle in the midst of feeding. They also become vulnerable to land-based invaders: there is no way to predict when a bird, bear, or mink might emerge from its forest home looking for a convenient seafood snack.

Indeed, the tide, which comes in and goes out twice a day, is one of the few predictable events in an otherwise chaotic world, providing an underlying rhythm to life along the shore. However, unless we stare unwaveringly at the shore for hours, the tide creeps in and out too gradually for us to notice. But by using time-lapse photography, which compresses hours or days of action into just a few minutes, the filmmakers who created LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA were able to capture the subtle beauty of the flowing tide in several stunning sequences. Documenting the ocean’s slow ebb and flow was no easy task, says Rodger Jackman, the veteran British filmmaker who produced the film: it took more than a dozen tries to get the right combination of light and weather.

Despite their difficulty, however, time-lapse techniques also allowed Jackman and his team to capture sights usually visible only to the most patient observer. In two sequences, for example, events that take hours to occur in nature are compressed into the space of a few seconds: a mussel puts forth the strong, web-like threads that anchor it to the ocean floor, and a single flower-like sea anemone elegantly divides into two perfect clones. Other anemones — which, despite their plant-like appearance, are animals — are shown fighting a territorial battle.

Though slow, the fight is vicious, as the combatants stab at each other with tiny, venom-filled harpoons. In another segment, a predatory sea star pursues a fleeing hat-shaped mollusk called a limpet in a chase that moves at a glacially slow pace, yet manages to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Though the limpet does not escape its relentless predator, other seashore animals use ingenious ways of foiling their attackers. When pursued by a hungry rock crab, a hermit crab simply climbs out of its shell, trading its home for its life. A keyhole limpet rents out space on its shell to a helpful companion, a small worm that darts out to charge the feet of a threatening sea star to drive it away. A solitary deep-water anemone literally dances away from an approaching sea star, tearing itself from the ocean floor and launching itself off with a deep bow and a twist, soaring away from the luckless star.

To order a copy of Life at the Edge of the Sea, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Life at the Edge of the Sea was originally posted December 1998.