The human mediated transfer of harmful organisms via shipping, specifically via ballast water transport, leading to the loss of biodiversity, alteration of ecosystems, negative impacts on human health and in some regions economic loss, has raised considerable attention especially in the last decade. Ballast water sampling is very important for biological invasions risk management. The complexit...

Ballast water treatment consists of the elimination of exotic species. Currently, the development of alternative methods for this process is directed toward treatment onboard ships. However, we present onshore treatment as a viable alternative for ballast water treatment. We investigated onshore treatment in two iron ore ports with movement capacities of 25 and 90 million tons annually (Mta) th...

Fluorescence by naturally occurring dissolved organic matter (FDOM) is a sensitive indicator of ballast water source, with high FDOM in coastal ballast water decreasing typically dramatically when replaced by oceanic seawater during ballast water exchange (BWE). In this study, FDOM was measured in 92 ships arriving at Pacific ports on the US west coast and in New Zealand, and used to assess the...

Non-native aquatic species can be introduced in new areas through emptying of the ballast tanks, with a high impact on health, economy and environment. This is considered by the International Maritime Organization (IMO): (i) in 2004, the IMO adopted the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BMW Convention) in orde...

Ballast water may, when discharged, cause the spread of nonindigenous and potentially invasive species. International ballast water treatment regulations have accelerated the development of new methods to detect, enumerate and assess the status of organisms in the water to be discharged. Flow cytometry (FCM) is a powerful technique with a broad range of applications with the possibility for mul...

Organisms, including Vibrio cholerae, can be transferred between harbors in the ballast water of ships. Zones in the Caribbean region where distance from shore and water depth meet International Maritime Organization guidelines for ballast water exchange are extremely limited. Use of ballast water treatment systems could mitigate the risk for organism transfer.

In this article, monitoring of ballast water after its treatment by any of BWTS (Ballast Water Treatment System) on board ships has been analyzed. The efficiency of those systems has shown to be the major problem as there are no systems for tracking ship ballast operations. The overall aim of the study was to emphasize the necessity of monitoring the ballast water treatment on board ships and t...

ships’ ballast water has apparently enabled numerous species to expand their ranges to environments in which they did not evolve (Carlton 1998; Cohen and Carlton, 1998; Ruiz et al., 2000). In normal trading operations, ships load seawater ballast in one port, then discard it at another in exchange for cargo. Modern international voyages span just a few days or weeks, affording entrained organis...

Zooplankton populations are spatially heterogeneous in nature and inside ship ballast tanks. Sampling methods should take heterogeneity into account, particularly when estimating quantitative variables such as abundance or concentration. It is particularly important to generate unbiased estimates of zooplankton concentration in ballast water when assessing compliance with new international ball...

Ships transport about 80 percent of world trade and transfer approximately three to five billion tons of ballast water internationally every year. Due to the likely presence of pollutants, the ballast water discharged by ships can have negative effects on aquatic ecosystems. This study was conducted on 10 ships that entered the Bushehr port to determine the effectiveness of the ballast water ex...