Smothering Seaweed
Eucheuma sp.
Description:
- Thick, warty, plastic-like, irregularly branching algae growing in tumbleweed-like clumps
- Varies in color from yellow, green, to brown
- Grows on reef flats or on sand bed
- Native to the Philippines
Concern:
- High growth rate; can double in size in 15-30 days
- Spreads by fragmentation
- Out-competes native alga and coral
- Grows over coral, shading it from sunlight
- No native predators in Hawaii
- Introduced in 1974 for aquaculture with intentions of cultivating for carrageenan, a food-grade thickener
Impacts:
- Causes shift in ecosystem; what was once coral dominated is now algae dominated with low diversity
- Habitat loss greatly affects recreational and commercial fisheries
