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INTRODUCTION
Overview
Marine and estuarine nonindigenous species (NIS) are a global issue, with nonindigenous species
found in every ocean of the world. Effectively addressing such a global threat requires
knowledge across multiple spatial scales and topics, ranging from knowledge of the habitat
preferences of an invader to the global distributions of potential invaders as input into risk
assessments. Over the last several decades, considerable progress has been made in
understanding the number and biogeographic distribution of marine/estuarine nonindigenous
species on the Pacific Coast of the United States and Canada, from Carlton’s omnibus doctoral
dissertation on the San Francisco Estuary (Carlton, 1979) to the formation of the Canadian
Aquatic Invasive Species Network (CAISN, http://www.caisn.ca/en/) and a monograph of
invaders in Hawaii (Carlton and Eldredge, 2009). Although the extent of earlier research does
not appear to be as extensive in Asian countries, a number of recent studies indicate a growing
recognition of the economic, health and environmental threat of near-coastal invaders (e.g.,
Iwasaki, 2006, Otani, 2006; Seo and Lee, 2008; Chavanich et al., 2010; Doi et al., 2011;
Zvyagintsev et al., 2011). While these and many other studies provide critical information for
specific species, locations, or countries, what has been lacking is a comprehensive analysis of
near-coastal invaders at the North Pacific scale.
To generate the baseline information needed to manage nonindigenous species in the North
Pacific, we initiated a synthesis of the distributions, invasion history, environmental tolerances,
and natural history of the near-coastal nonindigenous species reported from the member
countries of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES; United States, Canada,
China, Republic of Korea, Japan, and Russia). Information was synthesized from a variety of
sources written in multiple languages, including input from PICES scientists, peer-reviewed
literature, agency reports, and web sites. This diverse information was synthesized in a Microsoft
Access database, the “PICES Nonindigenous Species Information System” (hereafter referred to
as the PICES database) designed for Access 2003 and 2007 running under Windows XP and
Windows Vista operating systems (32 bit only). The PICES database was used to generate this
document, the “Atlas of Nonindigenous Marine and Estuarine Species in the North Pacific”
(hereafter referred to as the Atlas). A companion document, “User’s Guide and Metadata for the
PICES Nonindigenous Species Information System” (Lee et al., 2012), provides instruction on
how to use the PICES database and detailed definitions for all classifications used in the
database.
The “Marine Ecoregions of the World” (MEOW) biogeographic schema (Spalding et al., 2007)
was used as the framework for assessing and mapping species’ distributions (Figures 1-23).
Based on the MEOW framework, the spatial patterns of invasion of the total number of invaders
(Figures 24 and 26) and of individual taxonomic groups (Figures 25 and 27 to 58) were
evaluated. We then conducted a preliminary analysis on the potential reasons for geographical
differences in the extent of invasion by evaluating the extent of invasion of foulers versus nonfoulers
(Figure 59) and on the likely vectors (Figure 60) by which the NIS were introduced into
each of the major regions. The remainder of the Atlas consists of “species profiles” for each of
the 747 NIS reported from the PICES countries. The profiles provide a standardized format
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