<p>Aquatic invasive species (AIS) management is essential for preserving ecosystem health and supporting human activities, but it can also have unintended ecological consequences. This systematic review synthesizes findings from 47 peer-reviewed and grey literature sources to examine the unintended ecological impacts of AIS management, with a particular focus on mechanical harvesting. This review identifies critical gaps in understanding the ecological costs of AIS management, especially for less-studied non-target taxa such as reptiles. Mechanical harvesting, while widely used to control invasive aquatic plants, has been subject to limited research explicitly assessing bycatch and potential effects on long-lived species with slow reproductive rates. Additionally, across the reviewed literature, chemical control methods and studies conducted in North America were disproportionately represented, highlighting geographic and methodological biases rather than global management patterns. This study also reveals that management strategies frequently emphasize economic and recreational outcomes; while ecological impacts, particularly on non-target taxa, are less consistently assessed. To address these challenges, we highlight the need for more holistic, ecosystem-based approaches that integrate bycatch monitoring and consider ecological, economic, and social dimensions of AIS management. By identifying key knowledge gaps and methodological shortcomings, this review provides a foundation and management-relevant recommendations to support more risk-aware and sustainable AIS control practices.</p>