Risk Screening of Arapaima, a New Species Proposed for Aquaculture in Florida

Agencies have a growing range of options for risk assessment of nonnative species varying from comprehensive assessments to rapid risk screens. Risk screens identify high-risk and low-risk species and those where more evaluation is warranted. Despite development and testing of risk-screening methods, there is little information in the literature regarding their implementation in management decisions. We used a screening tool, the Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK), coupled with a detailed literature review to evaluate the risks of the genus Arapaima across Florida, where there is growing interest in its culture as a food fish. We found a medium risk of invasiveness overall, the greatest risk being to subtropical south Florida due to the low cold tolerance of Arapaima that it would experience further north. Ultimately the agency determined that a combination of literature review and the risk screen was sufficient to inform their decision making and that current conditional species regulations provided adequate risk mitigation to allow culture. The agency saved time and money by developing background information and a preliminary estimate of risk prior to engaging in comprehensive assessment. Flexibility allows agencies to tailor their risk assessment and management processes to different risk environments and to better inform decision making. Received October 29, 2014; accepted June 15, 2015