Opinions of North American aquatic invasive species managers about potential Buddhist life release practices

The Buddhist practice of life release is a known pathway of invasive species within the United States. However, there are no established outreach programs designed to address this pathway within the US. To facilitate the process of creating an outreach program, we surveyed members of the regional panels on aquatic nuisance species to determine their opinions on a series of potential life release practices that could both meet the cultural need of the practice and reduce invasion risk. Aquatic invasive species managers generally agreed that some practices were acceptable, including working with a wildlife rehabilitation center to release recovered wildlife and working with a wild bait harvester to release bait into the waterbody from which it was harvested. We hope that by identifying various life release practices and the associated opinions about these practices, aquatic invasive species managers can facilitate low risk methods of practicing life release.