Invasion of Japanese Marine Microbe Discovered in San Francisco Bay
In the choppy waters of San Francisco Bay, scientists have discovered the first known foreign marine microbe to immigrate into U.S. coastal waters.
Researchers from UC Berkeley and the U.S. Geological Survey reported today at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver that a single-celled organism is now living in the bay. Called Trochammina hadai, the amoeba-like creatures normally live in the shallow estuaries and bays of Japan.
The organism apparently arrived within the past 10 years, probably hitching a ride in the ballast tanks of a ship that took on water in a Japanese port and emptied its tanks into western U.S. waters.
This is the first time anyone has documented a new marine microbe taking up residence in U. S. coastal waters.
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