Visitors to the Lake District have been unwittingly spreading invasive plants, including New Zealand pigmyweed, from lake to lake on paddleboards, fishing and swimming gear.
Just a tiny fragment of pigmyweed carried on a fishing net, paddleboard or tow float (used by open water swimmers as a safety marker) is enough to spread this species from one freshwater lake to another. Introducing plants and animals to a place they don’t usually inhabit poses a biosecurity risk and could spread disease.
Invasive water plants like New Zealand pigmyweed can spread to cover huge areas of a lake. Like an algal bloom, these dense mats of green weed clog up waterways, making swimming and paddling more difficult. The plants outcompete native species by shading out light, and the decline in native plants, and animals including insects, frogs and newts, can lead to a catastrophic collapse of the food chain.
