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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