Transforming marine pest control for the 21st century

Eradication and control of invasive pests in the sea is poorly developed. Advancing beyond cumbersome, inefficient, and often manual removal of marine pests will require ambition and innovation. We outline key steps to enable effective marine pest control and eradication by (i) building upon strategic and tactical approaches used in successful terrestrial pest control campaigns, and (ii) developing a toolbox of effective and scalable marine pest-control methods. To overcome widespread defeatism, we advocate that marine biosecurity risk-benefit decision making should favor action to build knowledge and confidence of how to drive pest populations into decline. These are achievable steps toward stronger marine biosecurity systems that can expand our capacity to eliminate or reduce pest populations and their negative impacts.