There are many ways exotic organisms can be transported to new areas.

Sometimes they are purposely imported, as with exotic pets, landscape plants, or livestock. Other times they arrive accidentally, hitchhiking on ships or in their cargo.

The Port of New Orleans
April 1958 issue of Popular Science

These are some of the more common ways organisms can invade:

  • Shipping

  • Boating

  • Transportation Corridors

  • Ballast Water

  • Hull Fouling

  • Dunnage

  • Aquaculture

  • River Diversions

  • Deliberate Stocking for Sport Fishing

  • Baitfish

  • Nursery/Water Garden Industries

  • Agriculture

  • Aquarium/Pet Industries

  • Fur Industries

  • Cultural Traditions