How an escaped aquarium plant unleashed California's killer algae in 2000

Caulerpa taxifolia, commonly known as “killer algae,” originates from the tropical waters of the Caribbean Some of the biggest ecological disasters start in the least likely places. Here it may have started with a home aquarium. An online report by the Centre for Invasive Species Research states that an ornamental seaweed, Caulerpa taxifolia, escaped into the coastal waters of Southern California in 2000, likely after an aquarium owner illegally dumped marine plants into a stormwater system. What seemed to be an isolated incident quickly became an environmental emergency and a six-year eradication campaign costing over US$7 million. This is one of the most dramatic examples of how a non-threatening aquarium species can become a destructive invasive threat.The killer algae on the riseFor the uninitiated, Caulerpa taxifolia, commonly known as “killer algae,” originates from the tropical waters of the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific. But its invasive story started in Europe. In the 1980s, aquarium managers at the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany, bred a cold-tolerant strain for display tanks. In 1984, this modified strain had accidentally escaped to the Mediterr...