Species profile

Japanese sea squirt

Styela clava Herdman, 1881

How we detect Japanese sea squirt

Occurrence density

Where Japanese sea squirt has been recorded

Aggregated occurrence records across its known range.

Styela clava is a solitary, subtidal ascidian tunicate. It has a variety of common names such as the stalked sea squirt, clubbed tunicate, Asian tunicate, leathery sea squirt, or rough sea squirt. As its common names suggest, S. clava is club-shaped with an elongated oval body and a long peduncle for attaching to a substrate. Although native to the northwestern waters of the Pacific Ocean, S. clava has become an increasingly successful invasive species outside of its native range since the 1900s. It is edible.