and weaknesses of the individual candidates. In assessing the strengths and weaknesses, the committee took account of the requirement specified in its task statement that the recommended options for the Great Lakes region be “practical and technically feasible.” The chapter ends with the committee’s conclusion about the possibility of establishing a suite of actions that would both enhance the potential for trade and eliminate further ship-vectored AIS introductions.

As a first step in identifying and exploring options for the Great Lakes region, the committee developed preliminary lists of actions that could meet or contribute to meeting one or the other (or possibly both) of the two criteria. The preliminary lists drew on information obtained by the committee during its meetings and field trips (see Appendix A), draft versions of the expert papers commissioned by the committee and discussions with the authors (see Appendix B), examination of the literature, and the expertise of individual committee members. The strengths, weaknesses, unknowns, and uncertainties associated with each candidate action were identified, and the lists of actions were developed further during a “brainstorming” session at the public meeting hosted by the committee in Toronto in May 2007 (see Appendix C). The resulting candidate actions to enhance the potential for global trade and to eliminate further AIS introductions are listed in Boxes 5-1 and 5-2, respectively.

The inclusion of a candidate action in Box 5-1 or 5-2 does not necessarily indicate that the committee viewed it as promising or endorsed the proposed approach. The intent at this initial stage was to capture a wide range of ideas and not to limit the investigation of candidate actions to those already being pursued. By engaging the authors of the commissioned papers, stakeholders, and the public in the process of identifying candidate actions, the committee sought to expand the list of possibilities beyond the status quo—while recognizing that some background knowledge of the issues is a