As large numbers of ships either take in ballast from or discharge their ballast into the Mumbai Harbor region, it is pertinent to quantify microorganisms of health concerns and suggest on the suitability of water for ballasting purposes. To meet with this main aim, a selected set of general and pathogenic bacterial groups and their seasonal variations were studied from the Mumbai Harbor area. ...

The efficacy of chlorine dioxide (ClO2) in eliminating organisms present in estuarine ballast water of a containership was determined under actual operating conditions by comparing the survival of planktonic communities present in waters of treated and control ballast tanks. Sampling was via ballast-tank hatches. The treatment (5 mg L(-1)ClO2 without pre-filtration) delivered by a prototype ClO...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143123.].

As a vector by which foreign species invade coastal and freshwater waterbodies, ballast water discharge from ships is recognized as a major environmental threat. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) drafted an international treaty establishing ballast water discharge standards based on the number of viable organisms per volume of ballast discharge for different organism size classes. C...

Natural or anthropogenic movement of sediments may be an important vector for the dispersal of invertebrate resting stages between water bodies. Here we record the presence of invertebrate diapausing eggs in residual sediments from transoceanic vessels and explore whether these may pose an invasion risk. Viability of diapausing eggs was explored under light and dark conditions using sediment co...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed permitting ballast water discharges--a benefit of which would be to reduce the economic damages associated with the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species. Research on ship-borne aquatic invasive species has been conducted in earnest for decades, but determining the economic damages they cause remains troublesome. Furthermore, w...

Enactment of any environmental policy should be followed by an evaluation of its efficacy to ensure optimal utilization of limited resources, yet measuring the success of these policies can be a challenging task owing to a dearth of data and confounding factors. We examine the efficacy of ballast water policies enacted to prevent biological invasions in the Laurentian Great Lakes. We utilize fo...

Ballast water discharge from ships has been the most important vector for introducing nonindigenous species to the Laurentian Great Lakes, and is responsible for many of the most ecologically and economically disruptive invasions in the basin (Mills et al. 1993, Ricciardi 2006). In an attempt to limit further invasions, ships entering the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River system with ballast water...