Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Biofouling

Abstract

Apart from conventional vessel-source pollution, other problems—such as harmful aquatic organisms carried by ballast water and introduction of aquatic invasive species by bio-fouling—are also having devastating effects on the world marine environment. An unfortunate by-product of maritime transportation is the spread of invasive aquatic species. Historically, many pandemic vectors moved from one country to another through this system. For example, British ships were responsible for carrying the vector of the Cholera pandemic Vibrio Cholerae from its endemic heartland in Bengal, India to China, Japan, Indonesia and Europe. A World Health Organisation (WHO) report holds maritime transportation responsible for over a 100 disease outbreaks between 1970 and 2000. In a study conducted in 1994, Vibrio Cholerae was found in ballast and bilge water of five ships docked in an American port, of which four had taken ballast water from cholera-infected countries.