The Model ofLessepsian Migration and Other Inter-Oceanic Contacts
165
spread of some adventive species along a busy shipping lane, perhaps the busiest
in the world before 1967, which carried 20% ofthe world tonnage yearly. One can
oniy wonder how it happened that transport of Mediterranean species into the
Red Sea was relatively so restricted.
3.10 The Model of Lessepsian Migration
,
"
and Other Inter-Oceanic Contacts
In the present, when man's impact on nature is one of the important topics
and increasingly investigated subjects, Lessepsian migration has become a textbook case for whoever and for whatever needs to exemplify man's impact on the
"pristine" nature. This is not correct. Lessepsian migration is a human artifact
only to the extent to which the French diplomat-engineer opened a passageway to
marine fauna. The dispersal of the Lessepsian migrants is, however, an entirely
natural process, a zoogeographical happening, which encompasses a whole fauna
and flora and a whole biotic province in the sea. It has nothing in common with
the invasion and explosive success of an isolated invading species which reached a
new environment fortuitously or as more often, by the aid of man. Lessepsian
migration is perhaps the last large-scale zoogeographical event in the very last
decades in which the Red Sea and the Mediterranean still preserved a pristine
stage. On a par with other contemporary biological phenomena and biotic environments, Lessepsian migration is equally endangered by pollution and by interference of man with the environment.
The phenomena to which Lessepsian migration can be compared are other
shipping canals, on one hand, and faunal movements in postglacial mediterranean seas (Por, 1972, 1975a) on the other hand. A selection ofthese comparable phenomena leads to the following chronologicallist:
1. The opening of the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, through the Bosphorus
± 10,000 BP (Before Present).
2. The contact established between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea about
7000BP.
3. The artificial and intermittent, historical "Pre-Lessepsian" shipping canal
between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, through the intermedium of the Nile
3200 BP-1300 BP.
4. The Welland Canal between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes, bypassing
Niagara falls-1829.
5. The Lessepsian Suez Canal-1869.
6. The Corinth Canal between the Gulf of Corinth (Ionian Seal and the Gulf
of Aigina (Aegean Sea)-1893.
7. The Nord-Ostsee Canal (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Canal) between the EIbe estuary
on the North Sea and the Bay ofKiel in the Baltic Sea-1895.
8. The Panama Canal, or Centramerican Canal, between the Gulf of Panama
(Pacific ücean), and the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean)-1914.
9. The Volga-Don Canal, connecting the Caspian and the Black Sea through
these two rivers-1953.
165
spread of some adventive species along a busy shipping lane, perhaps the busiest
in the world before 1967, which carried 20% ofthe world tonnage yearly. One can
oniy wonder how it happened that transport of Mediterranean species into the
Red Sea was relatively so restricted.
3.10 The Model of Lessepsian Migration
,
"
and Other Inter-Oceanic Contacts
In the present, when man's impact on nature is one of the important topics
and increasingly investigated subjects, Lessepsian migration has become a textbook case for whoever and for whatever needs to exemplify man's impact on the
"pristine" nature. This is not correct. Lessepsian migration is a human artifact
only to the extent to which the French diplomat-engineer opened a passageway to
marine fauna. The dispersal of the Lessepsian migrants is, however, an entirely
natural process, a zoogeographical happening, which encompasses a whole fauna
and flora and a whole biotic province in the sea. It has nothing in common with
the invasion and explosive success of an isolated invading species which reached a
new environment fortuitously or as more often, by the aid of man. Lessepsian
migration is perhaps the last large-scale zoogeographical event in the very last
decades in which the Red Sea and the Mediterranean still preserved a pristine
stage. On a par with other contemporary biological phenomena and biotic environments, Lessepsian migration is equally endangered by pollution and by interference of man with the environment.
The phenomena to which Lessepsian migration can be compared are other
shipping canals, on one hand, and faunal movements in postglacial mediterranean seas (Por, 1972, 1975a) on the other hand. A selection ofthese comparable phenomena leads to the following chronologicallist:
1. The opening of the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, through the Bosphorus
± 10,000 BP (Before Present).
2. The contact established between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea about
7000BP.
3. The artificial and intermittent, historical "Pre-Lessepsian" shipping canal
between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, through the intermedium of the Nile
3200 BP-1300 BP.
4. The Welland Canal between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes, bypassing
Niagara falls-1829.
5. The Lessepsian Suez Canal-1869.
6. The Corinth Canal between the Gulf of Corinth (Ionian Seal and the Gulf
of Aigina (Aegean Sea)-1893.
7. The Nord-Ostsee Canal (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Canal) between the EIbe estuary
on the North Sea and the Bay ofKiel in the Baltic Sea-1895.
8. The Panama Canal, or Centramerican Canal, between the Gulf of Panama
(Pacific ücean), and the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean)-1914.
9. The Volga-Don Canal, connecting the Caspian and the Black Sea through
these two rivers-1953.