Invasion
Invasion Description
1st Record: Brundenel/Prince Edward Island/Gulf of St. Lawrence (1998, Locke et al. 2007; Turcotte and Sainte Marie 2009)
Geographic Extent
Brundenel/Prince Edward Island/Gulf of St. Lawrence (1998, Locke et al. 2007; Turcotte and Saint Marie 2009); Cascapedia/Quebec/Chaleur Bay (2004, Ashton 2006); Magdalen Islands/Quebec/Gulf of St. Lawrence (2004, Turcotte and Sainte Marie 2009); Caribou/Nova Scotia/Northumberland Strait (2004, Turcotte and Sainte Marie 2009); Newfoundland/Notre
Dame Bay, Placentia Bay, Fortune Bay, and most recently (2019) Trinity Bay (Working Group on Introductions and Transfers of Marine Organisms 2022)
Vectors
| Level | Vector |
|---|---|
| Alternate | Ballast Water |
| Alternate | Hull Fouling |
| Alternate | Fisheries Accidental (not Oyster) |
Regional Impacts
| Economic Impact | Fisheries | |
| Field and laboratory work (unpublished) indicates that high densities of C. mutica interfere with settlement of mussel spat (Turcotte and Sainte Marie 2009). | ||
| Ecological Impact | Competition | |
| On fouling plates, high densities of Caprella mutica and the cryptogenic C. linearis inhibit the settlement of the tunicate Ciona intestinalis, which is locally invasive in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. One possible mechanism is physical disturbance or chemical avoidance of caprellids by settling tunicate larvae (Collin and Johnson 2014). | ||
| Ecological Impact | Predation | |
| A negative correlation between newly settled tunicates (Ciona intestinalis) and caprellids (C. mutica and C. linearis) on fouling plates in Prince Edward Island estuaries may be the result of predation by caprellids on the larvae. While the two caprellids were equally abundant, C. mutica's larger size suggests that it made the largest contribution to the interaction (Collin and Johnson 2014). | ||