The US Fish and Wildlife Service funded this project through a grant to the Council. The work in this report is some of the first ever, broad-scale identification of plankton using genetic methods. Eight potential non-native species were detected and identified in Prince William Sound across the various survey sites.
All were benthic (bottom dwelling – planktonic as larvae) organisms. These were: the Atlantic mudwhelk Illyanassa obsolete, the Asian mussel Muscalista senhousia, the European hydrozoan Cordylophora, the Atlantic bryozoan Bugula stolonifera, the clam Mya arenaria, the Asian shrimp Palaemon macrodactylus, the polychaete Streblospio gynobranchiata, and the tunicate Botrylloides violaceus. Only two of these species are known to be previously established in Alaska, including M. arenaria and B. violaceus. Only the first of these is known presently to occur in PWS, based on previous surveys.