Melanothamnus harveyi (Bailey) Díaz-Tapia and Maggs, 2017

Kakkonen, Jenni E., Worsfold, Tim M., Ashelby, Christopher W., Taylor, Andrea & Beaton, Katy, 2019, The value of regular monitoring and diverse sampling techniques to assess aquatic non-native species: a case study from Orkney, Management of Biological Invasions 10 (1), pp. 46-79 : 56-57

(5) Melanothamnus harveyi (Bailey) Díaz-Tapia and Maggs, 2017

Status in U.K. – non-native.

The red seaweed Melanothamnus harveyi (“Harvey’s siphon weed”) has been recorded each year since 2014, from rapid assessment and scrape samples. It has been recorded at four locations within Scapa Flow, at Scapa, Burray and Longhope visitor yacht moorings and at Vanguard navigation buoy, and has also been recorded in four locations north of Orkney Mainland.

It was introduced to the south coast of England before 1908 ( Maggs and Stegenga 1999) and although known from Loch Ryan in south-west Scotland since at least the late 1980s ( Maggs and Hommersand 1990; Nall et al. 2015) and from St. Andrews, Fife since 1992 ( Maggs and Stegenga 1999), the first confirmed records of this species in North Scotland were made in Kinlochbervie and Scrabster harbours in 2012 ( Nall et al. 2015). The records presented here from 2014 are the first from Orkney.

RBGE voucher specimen reference number: E 00884773.