No zebras in Fremantle harbour

Alarm bells rang around the Australian maritime industry this year when the dreaded zebra mussel was found in Darwin's harbour.

The fingernail-sized mollusc, which has wreaked havoc in harbours and other waterways overseas, was thought to have been introduced to Darwin in a ship's ballast water.

The mussel grows in clusters at a rapid rate and clings to anything, fouling ship's hulls and underwater machinery.

Murdoch marine scientist Dr Eric Paling said": "To get an idea of how these things can grow — they would be able to cover a plastic chair in a month or so and it would weigh another 60kg or more."

So far the offending mussel has not been found in other waters.

Keeping a watch out for introduced marine pests has become a job for a CSIRO division, the Centre for Research into Marine Pests (CRIMP), and a Murdoch-based research team at our Marine and Fresh Water Research Laboratory (MAFWRL) is playing a part on the Western front.

The team, under the direction of Dr Paling, has taken samples from WA's busiest shipping lanes — Cockburn Sound and Fremantle Harbour — and is sifting through them to check for pests.

The samples are gathered by scraping underwater pylons, sediment cores, plankton tows, settlement plates and a variety of other techniques.

Using the university's newest laboratory at its Fremantle marine science centre, the team is categorising all the marine life from each drum of sample material.

Under contract to CRIMP, it will report the findings in coming months.

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