British windsurfers, sailors and rowers have been helping in the fight against invasive species – showing big sporting events like the Olympics can leave a legacy of biodiversity.
aPumping the sail to gain speed, windsurfer Alice Read lifts out of the water and glides across the sparkling blue of Portland Harbour. The only sounds are the wind and the quiet buzz of her hydrofoil. When she turns, I barely notice her crossing the board, her movements fluid as the water itself. She reaches for the surface with the fingertips of one hand, spray fizzing into the air as she swoops past. She is so close she could touch the boat I'm sitting in. Effortlessly, Reed comes to a stop, resting for a moment to catch her breath.
"On the water, I'm just having so much fun – it's only when I come off the water I realise actually how much work I've done," she says.
Under the rings of the Olympic flag, the atmosphere at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, home to the British Sailing Team, is electric. Groups of children, too, are out on the water, shouting and laughing as they row in teams, while mini-windsurfers wobble about in the shallows. On the shore, sailing boats line the water's edge, their rigging jingling in the wind as if chomping at the bit.
As it stands, Team GB tops the all-time Olympic sailing medal table, having won more medals than any other nation. And today, without doubt there is an atmosphere of excitement, energy – and an unmistakable passion for the water.
But many of them are also deeply aware that beneath the waves, our waterbodies are in trouble. Aliens are creeping across oceans, up rivers, and along streams and canals. Invasive non-native species are thriving, often outcompeting native ones, and have been identified as one of the top drivers of global biodiversity loss. Olympic sailors, windsurfers and rowers are now helping in the fight against this destructive flora and fauna.
One of Read's earliest memories is of sitting on the bow of her dad's board as he windsurfed full pelt across an Oxford reservoir near where she grew up. "It's something else. It's such a great feeling," says Reed. "There's something about being able to work with [the elements]. It's just you, the water and the wind."
Today, she windsurfs all over the globe but Portland is where she calls home – and where she is currently training for the 2028 Olympics.
Read's training regime is intense. Six days a week she works on her speed and manoeuvres. "We're always trying to go as fast as we can – in every direction – upwind, downwind, on a reach," she says. "We do something called tuning runs where we go for a few hours in a straight line, adjusting equipment to go faster. In manoeuvres sessions, [we do] jibe attacks. With a sport that's so fast now in the water, if you mess up a jibe, it's pretty costly."
But it's not just what's on top of the water that matters to Read. A few years ago, she left the windsurfing scene to study for a degree in ocean science and marine conservation at the University of Plymouth, which she completed in 2021. Today she is an ambassador for The Green Blue, a programme created by the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) and British Marine to promote sustainable boating.
Invasive species can be a particular concern in ports and harbours due to the movement of a large number of boats, as well as the sheltered environments they provide. In Weymouth Harbour alone, 18 different non-native species were found in 2023. These include Japanese kelp which grows quickly on hard surfaces such jetties and moorings, outcompeting native kelp; slipper limpets which settle in wave-protected areas like marinas where they smother other seabed species and consume planktonic larvae; and trumpet tubeworms which gather in huge numbers to form large reef-like structures. But, says Reed, by carrying out a simple "clean, check, dry" procedure we can minimise the introduction and spread of such invasive species.
According to a 2024 report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), invasive non-native species pose a severe threat to people and nature in all regions on Earth.
More than 37,000 alien species that we know of have been introduced to new areas to date due to human activities. Of these, about 6% of alien plants, 22% of alien invertebrates, 14% of alien vertebrates, and 11% of alien microbes are known to be invasive. Invasive species alter habitats, disrupt food chains, damage livelihoods and spread diseases – and have been a major factor in 60%, and the only driver in 16%, of global animal and plant extinctions.
Most negative impacts are felt on land, but it is an aquatic species – water hyacinth – which is the world's most widespread invasive alien. As the global economy grows, changes in land- and sea-use accelerate, and climate change intensifies, the number of invasive species is now "rising at unprecedented rates".
But the authors of the IPBES report also highlight that prevention measures, such as strict border biosecurity and import controls, can prevent future biological invasions, and – while prevention is the best option – eradication and containment can control invasive non-native species already present, they said.
