NEW HAVEN — There was nothing pretty about brown, knobby, leathery clumps clinging to a rope in bucket of water at the dock at Long Wharf on Wednesday morning. In fact, they seemed like creatures from a science fiction movie — nefarious pods that could mean the end of civilization.
"They're like something only a mother could love," said Carmela Cuomo, head of the marine biology program at the University of New Haven.
Cuomo and her student Nicholas Brunetti, 21, of Saddle Brook, N.J., were at the dock in New Haven to talk about these little clumps of ugly, officially known as Styela clava. The creatures are also known "sea squirts," so named because they pump and expel the water they ingest after screening it for food. Despite their silly nickname, Cuomo and others fear that the squirts could become a serious threat to the state's $30 million shellfish industry.
The Styela clava — also known by yet another name, the Asian clubbed tunicate — is an invasive species of invertebrate believed to have originated off the coast of Korea. Eventually, the squirt made its way to the state and, several years ago, was spotted in Connecticut, near Groton and Noank. It's since been found in various sections of Long Island Sound, near such cities as New Haven, East Haven and Bridgeport. The squirts on display Wednesday had actually been collected in Bridgeport Harbor.
Source: Connecticut Post
