Examples of current international, regional and national regulatory frameworks for preventing and managing marine bioinvasions

Significant global change has occurred through the accidental and intentional human mediated introductions of species in regions outside of their evolutionary origins can no longer be disputed (e.g., Lubchenco et al. 1991; Carlton 2001; Pimentel 2002). This change is well documented in a variety of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems (e.g., Drake and Mooney 1989) and is becoming increasingly apparent in marine and estuarine habitats in all of the world’s oceans (e.g., Carlton 2001; Chap. 2, Carlton). Documenting the scale and rates of marine introductions and the subsequent changes to invaded systems has captured much of the marine invasion ecology effort during the last 25 years (e.g., Grosholz et al. 2000; Carlton and Ruiz 2004). While the lessons that can be learned about evolution, ecosystem function, community dynamics, and species biology and ecology from the study of biological introductions are fascinating (e.g., Harper 1965; Carlton and Ruiz 2004), the challenge “what should we and/or what can we do?” remains. The options appear to be simple, however the details of implementation are difficult: we can choose to do nothing or we can choose to act.