Slimy and spreading fast: Shellfish farms face biofouling ‘invasion’
Scientists are monitoring dozens of sites in Nova Scotia and southern New Brunswick to see if the latest warm winter in Atlantic Canada accelerated the spread of slimy marine invertebrates.Six invasive sea squirt — or tunicate — species have become established in Nova Scotia in the last decade. Two more are believed to have arrived.The creatures cling to anything they come into contact with and have become a major problem in the shellfish aquaculture sector. They are 95 per cent water and heavy, weighing down ropes and …