Fisheries committee  Thank you. My name is Anthony Ricciardi. I'm a professor of biology at McGill University. I've studied invasive species for 20 years. My research examines the impacts of invasions in aquatic environments. There are a few important points I'd like to bring to your attention. T

Fisheries committee  There are many facets to that. As far as Asian carp are concerned, I identified a back door that has largely been ignored by the public—and I suppose maybe by some policy-makers too—in that we're worried about the Chicago shipping canal, and rightly so, because it is abundant i

Fisheries committee  As Dr. Johnson has indicated, we happen to be part of an NSERC-funded research network called CAISN, the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network, which consists of people from over 20 universities as well as government scientists at the provincial level, such as Ontario, and th

Fisheries committee  My funding is NSERC. It's federal, largely, and other places as well.

Fisheries committee  I can't comment on that. I'm not aware of how much Transport Canada is monitoring. My impression is that they're taking this very seriously and are boarding many ships to test the ballast tanks for salinity.

Fisheries committee  My understanding is that they're working closely together through the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority. I can't comment on how efficient they are.

Fisheries committee  Starting with the effectiveness of ballast water exchange, the current guidelines applying to ships that we call NOBOB ships, those reporting no ballast on board, that regulation went into effect in 2006. Those are the ones that were not subject to any previous regulation that

Fisheries committee  The regulation would have to be based on solid risk assessment, as it is in the countries I named, which are well advanced in this, both in the science of risk assessment and the application and regulation. They are Australia and New Zealand, which have ministries or departments

Fisheries committee  Potentially those would be the countries I'd look to for guidance.

Fisheries committee  I feel uncomfortable speaking for DFO. I really think you should talk to them. I don't know. That seems to be an interesting idea, but it would become a bit problematic to apply this on a species-by-species basis, because there are so many potential threats. Can I get back to w

Fisheries committee  One of the things we've learned about successful eradication of invasive species in general, not just aquatic ones, is that there are some patterns that differentiate successful eradication from the more dominant, more common, unsuccessful ones. One of the things we've learned

Fisheries committee  That's a famous example. It's not the only one, but it's one that's well known. There was a mussel that's similar to the zebra mussel, except it's marine, and it was brought into Darwin Harbour, in Australia. It was brought in by yachts from the Caribbean. It invaded three marin

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  You can't hold them in Ontario. And I'm not sure, but I think there are other provincial.... In terms of other provinces, I'm not sure if B.C. has a regulation against them also. But clearly there's great heterogeneity in legislation at the provincial level. There is nothing th

Fisheries committee  Of course there should be.