DAYNE BUDDO, senior research officer of Jamaica Clearing House Mechanism in the Natural History Division, Institute of Jamaica (I.O.J.), is Jamaica's delegate to the fourth annual Marine Bioinvasions Conference, to be held in Wellington, New Zealand next week.
Mr. Buddo will present research findings on the Green Mussel, a marine invasive species which has been inflicting significant damage on native marine life in Jamaica.
The conference is scheduled to take place from August 22 to 26.
An estimated 10,000 marine species are exchanged daily around the world and, every nine weeks, a marine invasive species establishes itself somewhere new. Since its 1998 arrival in Jamaica, the Invasive Green Mussel has been causing significant ecological and economic impacts on the marine environment.
A native of the Indo-Pacific region, the Green Mussel was introduced to Trinidad in 1990, Venezuela, 1993, and the United States in 1999. Economically, these Green Mussels may cause severe damage to water systems, such as clogging seawater intake pipelines, resulting in millions of dollars being spent annually to clean these pipelines.
EXTENSIVE RESEARCH
Mr. Buddo has been conducting extensive research on the effects of this shellfish on various ecosystems in Jamaica.
"Invasive species, such as the Green Mussel, cause significant impact on marine biodiversity. The major cause for the spread of these marine invasives is the transport and release of ballast water by cargo ships," he says.
A pioneering move is now being taken by the Natural History Division of the I.O.J. and the Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies (U.W.I.), Mona, to address the long-standing issue of ballast water release into Jamaica's coastal waters.
The Marine Bioinvasions Conference will address a wide range of issues including the ecological and evolutionary consequences of these forms of marine life, transport vectors, ballast water, patterns of dispersion, economic impact, education and outreach activities.
Mr. Buddo is currently the chairman of Jamaica's Alien Invasive Species Working Group.
To date, Mr. Buddo is the first individual in Jamaica to conduct research on marine invasive species, and is also the first Jamaican invited to speak at such conferences. He has conducted his research on this mussel in Kingston Harbour through the UWI.
