Caprella mutica Schurin, 1935

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 : 59

(8) Caprella mutica Schurin, 1935

Status in U.K. – Non-native.

The “Japanese skeleton shrimp”, Caprella mutica , was first recorded in British waters from Oban, Scotland in July 2000 but it is unknown how long it was present prior to its discovery ( Willis et al. 2004). In Europe it has been present since at least 1995 ( Platvoet et al. 1995; Ashton et al. 2007) and it is now very widespread along Scottish coasts ( Ashton et al. 2007). The first Orkney records were made on mooring lines in 2006 ( Ashton 2006) and it has recently been recorded fouling marine renewable energy structures in Orkney ( Want et al. 2017). Ship hull fouling or recreational boats were cited by Ashton (2006) as a possible means of introduction to Orkney. Subsequently, it was recorded from the HMS Vanguard navigation buoy in 2008 (J. Kakkonen, pers. obs.) and has been consistently recorded in high abundance from scrape, settlement panel and rapid assessment samples throughout Orkney each year since the start of the programme in 2012.

NMS voucher reference number: NMS.Z.2017.144.63.