Transcript Limiting the Ballast Water Vector

Controlling Ballast Water:
Limiting the Invasion
Jerry Joyce
Seattle Audubon
www.seattleaudubon.org
All materials copyrighted © 2005, Seattle Audubon Society
Why does Seattle Audubon care
about ballast water?
• Seattle Audubon cultivates and leads a community that
•
•
values and protects birds and the natural environment.
There are documented instances in which birds have
been directly harmed by the effects of ballast water
discharge, as well as many cases of indirect harm.
The release of ballast water that contains invasive or
pathogenic species, or other contaminants, into our
waters neither values nor protects our natural
environment.
The Invasion
• 7,633 ship-visits in 2004
• Discharge introduces exotic species
• Some exotic species are invasive, others
are direct health threats through disease
or contamination
The Plan
• Reduce/eliminate introduction of exotics
now through mid-ocean exchange and/or
treatment
• Eliminate introductions of all exotics
through treatment when feasible
Why Washington?
Why Now?
• There are gaps in all current rules
• There are inspection problems
• There are insufficient data collected
• Invasive species threaten WA economy
and environment
The New Law
If you haven't exchanged or treated ballast
water, you can't discharge it in our waters
Shippers' Choices
• Do open-ocean exchange
• Hold the ballast water
• Install approved treatment
• Install approved experimental treatment
• Plan to install approved treatment (if dry
docking is required)
• Pay a fine
How Bad Can It Get?
Look to SF Bay
• More than 234 non-native plant and
animal species are now established in the
Bay
• Up to 99% of the biomass and 97% of the
organisms in the Bay are now non-native
Some Exotic Species Currently
Observed in Washington
1998 & 2000 surveys in the shallow waters of Elliott Bay,
Totten and Eld Inlets, and Willapa Bay reporting species that
were probably introduced through ballast water
• Cnidaria (jelly fish, coral, etc.)
–
Cordylophora caspia Black/Caspian
Seas
• Annelida: Polychaeta (pile worms,
sea worms)
–
–
Polydora cornuta N Atlantic
Pseudopolydora bassarginensis NW
–
Pseudopolydora kempi japonica NW
–
Pacific
Pacific
Streblospio benedicti N Atlantic
• Arthropoda: Crustacea: Ostracoda
("seed shrimp")
–
Eusarsiella zostericola NW Atlantic
• Arthropoda: Crustacea: Cumacea
–
Nippoleucon hinumensis NW Pacific
• Arthropoda: Crustacea:
Tanaidacea
–
Sinelobus stanfordi not known
• Arthropoda: Crustacea:
Amphipoda
–
–
–
–
–
Ampithoe valida NW Atlantic
Caprella mutica NW Pacific
Grandidierella japonica NW Pacific
Jassa marmorata NW Atlantic
Melita nitida NW Atlantic
–
Molgula manhattensis NW Atlantic
• Urochordata (sea squirts)
What's the Cost?
Examples of National Annual Cost
• 3-5 Billion dollars—Zebra mussel
• 1 Billion dollars—Asian clams
• 200 Million dollars—Shipworm
• 44 Million dollars—European green crab
WA Dangers:
Infrastructure Examples
• Utilities: uptake and discharge piping,
screening, water quality
• Ports and cities: pilings, cabling,
subsurface equipment, sea walls, liability
• Agriculture: irrigation, dikes,
transportation
WA Dangers:
Aquatic Industries Examples
• Shellfish: predation, viral and bacterial
contamination, competition for resources
• Fisheries: predation on juvenile fish,
reduced prey fish and zooplankton,
contamination, disruption of food web,
fewer fish to catch
It's Happened Before:
Shellfish
• The European green crab in New England has
•
destroyed commercial shellfish beds and preys
on large numbers of native oysters and crabs
More than 400 people in Galveston Bay were
sickened in 1998 by shellfish that had been
contaminated by bacterium never before
detected in the U.S. but common in Asia. USDA
believes it arrived via ballast water discharge.
It's Happened Before:
Fisheries
Decline in catch
(tonnes) from
1984 to 1993
due to the
introduction of
a comb jelly
into the Black
and Azov Seas
1,000,000
Anchovy
100,000
Start of
invasion
Sprat
10,000
1,000
100
10
Horse
Mackerel
1
1984
1993
Waiting is Not an Option
• In SF Bay a new species is established
every 14 weeks, up from one every 55
weeks in 1960
• Ballast water in 14 of the 15 vessels
sampled entering the Chesapeake Bay
contained a strain of cholera never before
identified in the U.S.
Bottom Line:
When Do We Deal with
the Invasion?
• 2016—US (under S363)—possibly later
• 2016—IMO—probably later
• 2007—Washington State program
Questions?
Email me: [email protected]
PowerPoint presentation:
http://www.seattleaudubon.org/science,
click on Invasive Species for a link to this
PowerPoint presentation