The Enemy of Good
By John Berge
Pacific Maritime Magazine
August 26, 2011
It has been 15 years since the publication of the National Research Council’s Stemming the Tide – Controlling Introductions of Nonindigenous Species by Ship’s Ballast Water. It pulled the lid off the uncomfortable reality that ballast water, which is so essential to keeping ships upright and in one piece, could also be the source of bio-invaders causing havoc in port ecosystems around the planet.
A lot has changed in those 15 years, beginning with the adoption of ballast water management for virtually all vessels, and now the next leap forward with installation of ballast water treatment systems. This technology has made enormous strides in just the last few years, achieving organism reductions on the order of 10,000 times the source ballast water. While we now have a good idea of the capabilities of ballast water treatment, just as importantly we better understand the limitations of this technology, and our ability to measure success.
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