[Coral-List] Exotic vs. Invasive.
John Ware
jware at erols.com
Fri Feb 15 11:26:42 EST 2013
Dear List,
Ken Marks recent post concerning Tubastraea micranthus reminded me of an
incident that occurred on a recent trip to Bonaire. A divemaster was
bemoaning the "invasion" of lionfish. When I mentioned that the "poster
coral" for Bonaire (Tubastraea sp) was invasive, I was severely
chastised. Lionfish were "invasive", Tubastraea was "exotic".
I noted that Ken Marks used both "exotic" and "invasion" in his e-mail.
I had never thought about the distinction before.
After Googling around a bit, I concluded that if the species under
consideration was sort of cute, it was "exotic". If it was ugly, it was
"invasive".
While that is a vast oversimplification, I wonder if the coral-reef
community distinguishes "exotic" from "invasive" and, if so, is there a
precise definition of the difference?
John
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