First record of invasive shell-boring worm in the Wadden Sea means trouble for oysters
Thursday, August 6, 2020 - 11:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
In October 2014, the suspicion arose that the parasite worm Polydora websteri had found its way to the Wadden Sea. Following years of research, that suspicion has now been confirmed: the worm, that likely originates from the Asian Pacific, has arrived in European waters. Researchers from the German Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), confirm in a publication in Marine Biodiversity, that they have found the shell-borer in oysters near Sylt and Texel and speculate that it is likely to have spread much further.