Alien species of <i>Bugula</i> (Bryozoa) along the Atlantic coasts of Europe

Three apparently non-native species of Bugula occur in marinas and harbours in Atlantic Europe. The most common, B. neritina, was known from a few sites in southern Britain and northern France during the 20th century, following its discovery at Plymouth by 1911. During the 1950-60s it was abundant in a dock heated by power station effluent at Swansea, south Wales, where it flourished until the late 1960s, while water temperatures were 7-10°C above ambient. It disappeared after power generation ceased, when summer temperatures probably became insufficient to support breeding. Details of disappearances have not been recorded but B. neritina was not seen in Britain between c1970 and 1999. Since 2000, it has been recorded along the south coast of England, and subsequently in marinas in the southern North Sea, Ireland and southern Scotland, well to the north of its former range, as well as along the Atlantic coast from Spain to The Netherlands. It has also been introduced to outlying localities such as the Azores and Tristan da Cunha. We report that this rapidly spreading form has the same COI haplotype as B. neritina currently invasive elsewhere in the world. B. simplex has been reported less, with 1950s records from settlement panels in some Welsh docks. It has not been targeted in most recent marina surveys but has been observed in southwest England, Belgium and The Netherlands. There are almost no recent records of B. stolonifera, though it was probably introduced to a few British and Irish ports prior to the 1950s. Its current status in most of western Europe is unknown but it has been reported as expanding throughout most of the world during the last 60 years. Having poorly known distributions, B. simplex and B. stolonifera should be recorded during future monitoring of alien species in Atlantic Europe. Illustrations to aid identification are included for all three species

Cats and the law: evolving protection for cats and owners

This article examines the practical impact of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 on companion animal owners and their companions. It argues that the true significance of the Act is in creating a 21st Century conception of animal welfare based on the needs of animals. Arguably this amounts to a form of rights given that the Act requires owners to consider the needs of individual animals representing a departure from previous legislation which was largely negative in scope i.e. specifying prohibited actions towards animals. Instead, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 imposes a positive obligation to provide animal welfare, signalling an end to 'standard' approaches to animal welfare and instead requiring responsible, informed human-animal domestic relationships

Mainstreaming after Lisbon: advancing animal welfare in the EU internal market

This article traces the evolution of EU animal welfare law and policy. It considers the scope that Member States have to protect the welfare of animals and asks: In the absence of an EU animal welfare policy underpinned by a legal basis on which to adopt animal welfare laws, to what extent have the EU institutions legislated in order to protect the welfare of animals

Cats and the law: research report

This research examines the legal status of cats, within the UK’s legal system (primarily in England and Wales) but also in an international context. It considers a range of different areas of law and conflicting perspectives within the UK’s animal welfare, contract, criminal and environmental law and also addresses issues of ownership and liability. In particular, the research examines how both domestic and wild cats are subject to different protection under the law and the manner in which ambiguities concerning the status of wild and domestic cats impose liability on humans for their actions in dealing with cats. The research was commissioned by the Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB) (now International Cat Care (iCatCare)) on behalf of the Cat Group (a consortium of different charities) who identified that a number of legal questions could arise for cat owners for which there does not currently seem to be a definitive answer. The research considers the legal status of cats in the context of not just the enforcement of animal welfare law but also within the context of other aspects of the law, which includes policy and ethical considerations relating to animal ownership and welfare. The research deals primarily with domestic cats in England and Wales and changes brought about by the Animal Welfare Act 2006,which consolidates much earlier legislation and both promotes animal welfare and provides an enforcement mechanism through which punishment may be pursued where there is a breach of animal welfare standards

In search of phylogenetic congruence between molecular and morphological data in bryozoans with extreme adult skeletal heteromorphy

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Diversity of Zoanthids (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) on Hawaiian Seamounts: Description of the Hawaiian Gold Coral and Additional Zoanthids

The Hawaiian gold coral has a history of exploitation from the deep slopes and seamounts of the Hawaiian Islands as one of the precious corals commercialised in the jewellery industry. Due to its peculiar characteristic of building a scleroproteic skeleton, this zoanthid has been referred as Gerardia sp. (a junior synonym of Savalia Nardo, 1844) but never formally described or examined by taxonomists despite its commercial interest. While collection of Hawaiian gold coral is now regulated, globally seamounts habitats are increasingly threatened by a variety of anthropogenic impacts. However, impact assessment studies and conservation measures cannot be taken without consistent knowledge of the biodiversity of such environments. Recently, multiple samples of octocoral-associated zoanthids were collected from the deep slopes of the islands and seamounts of the Hawaiian Archipelago. The molecular and morphological examination of these zoanthids revealed the presence of at least five different species including the gold coral. Among these only the gold coral appeared to create its own skeleton, two other species are simply using the octocoral as substrate, and the situation is not clear for the final two species. Phylogenetically, all these species appear related to zoanthids of the genus Savalia as well as to the octocoral-associated zoanthid Corallizoanthus tsukaharai, suggesting a common ancestor to all octocoral-associated zoanthids. The diversity of zoanthids described or observed during this study is comparable to levels of diversity found in shallow water tropical coral reefs. Such unexpected species diversity is symptomatic of the lack of biological exploration and taxonomic studies of the diversity of seamount hexacorals

Phylogenetically Widespread Polyembryony in Cyclostome Bryozoans and the Protracted Asynchronous Release of Clonal Brood-Mates

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