Ecological Risk Assessment of Ballast Water

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 151 (2014) 122 – 126

1st International Conference Green Cities 2014 – Green Logistics for Greener Cities

Ecological risk assessment of ballast water Zofia Jóźwiak*, Marta Barańska Maritime University of Szczecin, Faculty of Economics and Transport Engineering, Poboznego Str. 11, 70-515 Szczecin, Poland

Abstract This paper identifies ballast water from vessels in Szczecin harbor to be of the highest risk category as far as transmitting living alien species is concerned. The species when encountering similar environmental conditions become a risk to the local species as food competitors treating the local species as food and expand in an invasive way, spreading formerly unknown diseases to the local environment. Moreover, they become dangerous to human health as well as hindering economy development by reducing fish resources and growing on hydro-technical facilities. © by Elsevier Ltd. is anLtd. open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © 2014 2013 Published The Authors. Published byThis Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of Green Cities 2014. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of Green Cities 2014 Keywords: ballast waters, introduced into the harbor, risk assessment;

1. Background Water used for vessel ballasting dumped in loading ports appears to be dangerous for coastal ecosystems. The introduction of alien species from ballast waters exchange may result in excessive development of organisms in the new environment and become a risk to the local fauna and flora as well as they limit the diversity of living organisms in the coastal basins and river estuaries susceptible to the introduction of alien species (Doblin et al, 2001). In this paper a risk assessment of port waters and coastal ecosystems pollution due to ballast waters dumped into the Szczecin harbor is presented. The probability of alien species surviving in a new environment is basically affected by the similarity of climate and salinity of waters where the alien species originate from as well as the waters of their introduction (Drake et al,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +48-604-430-588; fax: +48-91-48-09-757. E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of Green Cities 2014 doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.013

Zofia Jóźwiak and Marta Barańska / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 151 (2014) 122 – 126

2005). Other significant factors appear to be the duration of the voyage and its characteristic (Santagata et al, 2008). The more similarities and the shorter the voyage, the more probable it seems for the organism to survive and adjust to the new environment to dominate it as an invasive organism (Locke et al, 1993). In the natural water environment of the Szczecin harbor a risk assessment was conducted that considered the following risk indicators: water salinity, temperature, time of the voyage duration, the type of the ballast waters donor port (the Baltic or outside the Baltic Sea). The risk assessment of the alien species introductions was based on the method of regional risk assessment of alien species introduction for the Baltic Sea (Gollasch and Leppakoski 1999 and 2007). Due to problems with data access (there are no proper databases) a model has been applied which allows for numerous simplifications but at the same time the assumptions do not influence the risk assessment. In the model the following quality factors affecting the ballast waters biological characteristic have been assumed: salinity gradient of the water basin the ballast waters originate from, temperature/climate conditions of the ballast waters donor area, and the route of the voyage (the Baltic Sea or outside the Baltic Sea). The risk assessment of the alien species introduced into the Szczecin harbor have been determined by comparing similarities concerning the environmental conditions of the donor port the ballast waters originate from, and the recipient port, that is the Szczecin harbor where the ballast waters get dumped, as well as defining the time and the area of the voyage. The aim of the analysis conducted was to identify the ballast waters donor ports of the highest risk category for the Szczecin harbor. In order to carry out this analysis it was indispensable to include information about the donor ports of the ballast waters dumped in the Szczecin harbor The list of the donor ports needed to be completed with data concerning the donor ports waters salinity and temperature. Then the duration of the vessels journey from the donor port to the Szczecin harbor had to be determined and the donor ports required to be identified as the Baltic or outside the Baltic Sea ports. Although for most vessels the place and time of ballasting are recoded in a proper log book, according to the recommended IMO guidelines, Res. A.868 (20), there has does not exist any system for collecting this data. That is why neither in the ports of the vessels’ call, nor in the harbor board such data appears to be accessible. 2. The Research Methodology In order to define the origin of ballast waters dumped into the water basin of the Szczecin harbor the database contained in the Polish Harbors Information and Control System – PHICS has been utilized. On the basis of this data all vessels that arrived at the Szczecin harbor under ballast assuming that their last port of call was the ballast waters donor port have been selected. All water ballast donor ports have been assigned to the bio-geographical regions according to the division of the “Large marine ecosystems of the world” (LMG), according to the guidelines of the IMO Committee of the Sea Environmental Protection contained in the MEPC 162(56) Resolution “Guidelines for risk assessment under regulation A-4 (G7)” (Briggs, 1974 and Ekman, 1953). Then each of the donor ports’ conditions has been compared to the Szczecin harbor with reference to water salinity and temperature. The time between the vessel’s setting out on a voyage to Szczecin (taking the ballast waters) and her time of arrival in Szczecin (ballast waters dump) as well as the donor ports have been located- within the Baltic area (+) and outside the Baltic area(-) have been calculated. It has also been assumed that vessels dumped their ballast waters right after their arrival in Szczecin. The time of the voyage has been calculated by means of a voyage calculator placed on the World Shipping Register - Sea Distances and Voyage Calculator (www.sea-distances.org). For calculating the voyage time 16 knots has been accepted as the vessel’s average speed (Walk and Modrzejewska 2007). 2.1. Salinity risk assessment The risk of the water basin salinity level of the donor port where the ships under ballast arrive from can be high, medium or low (Behrens et al, 2005; Gollasch and Leppakoski 1999 and 2007, and Santagata et al, 2008; Santagata

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et al, 2008). The risk can be expressed in numbers from 3 to 1. The salinity ranges attributed to each of the particular risk levels for the port of Szczecin are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Port waters salinity risk assessment. Salinity level in the Szczecin harbor- 0‰ Salinity level [‰]

Risk

Scale of risk

0-3

High

3

>3 7

Low

1

2.2. Temperature risk assessment The temperature risk of donor port waters can be high (3 points), medium (2 points) or low (1 point) depending upon the similarity of temperature conditions. According to the areas of ballasting the ships sailing to the Szczecin harbor there have been outlined 3 risk areas: Eastern-Atlantic-Boreal Region EAB – high risk zone –3 points. Mediterranean-Atlantic Region MA – medium risk zone- 2 points. Western-Atlantic-Boreal Region WAB – low risk zone – 1 point. 2.3. Temperature risk assessment The ballast water tests have proved that when the voyage time becomes prolonged the number of the organisms living in the ballast waters decreases (Behrens et al, 2005). Thus, short voyages from nearby ports appear to be in the highest category risk. Moreover, considerable changes in biological composition of ballast waters have been noticed after 3 and 10 days of ballast waters being transported in tanks; after the first 3 days the largest decrease in number of living organisms occurred; but after 10 days of the journey most of the other left organisms have died (Dickman and Zhang, 1999). The range of risks related to the voyage time are presented in Table 2. Table 2. Voyage time risk. Voyage time [days]

Risk

Scale of risk

10

High Medium Low

3 2 1

2.4. Risk assessment of the voyage route In order to assess the risk there have been two types of voyages enumerated: from Baltic ports, and from ports outside the Baltic Sea. In the case of voyages in the area of the Baltic Sea the risk concerning the voyage route has been assumed to be low (1 point) and high (3 points) in case of donor ports outside the Baltic Sea area.

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2.5. Total risk assessment In order to assess the total risk (R) all points achieved for the particular risk factors (salinity-A, temperature-B, voyage time-C, and voyage route-D) have been summed up according to the formula (1): (1) The maximum potential number of points a donor port may achieve is 12. The accepted total risk according to Gollasch and other authors may appear on 4 levels as very high, high, and medium and low (Table 3). Table 3. Total risk. Risk

Scale of risk [points]

Very high High Medium Low

12 11 9 - 10 ≤8

3. Description of the results Risk assessment has been analyzed for donor ports, that is the ports which are left for the Szczecin harbor by vessels under ballast due to which enlisting ports of very high and high risk category as well as medium and low risk category has become possible. There have been identified 14 ports whose ballast waters dumped into the Szczecin harbor cause a very high risk of introducing alien species. These are European ports situated by the North Sea (Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Belgium and United Kingdom). The ports of high risk category are also situated by the North Sea (United Kingdom and Norway). In case of Szczecin the donor ports of very high risk category make up 12.4% of all the considered ports (Figure 1). Very high 12,4% Low 31%

High 3,5%

Medium 53,1% Fig. 1. Total risk assessment for the Szczecin harbor.

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4. Recapitulation The Szczecin harbor was entered by vessels arriving from the ports situated at the coast of the Baltic Sea (bioregion 23), the Norwegian Sea (bioregion 21), the North Sea (bioregion bioregion 22), the coasts of Ireland and Great Britain (24), the coasts of Iberian Peninsula from the Atlantic Ocean (bioregion 25), the Mediterranean Sea (bioregion 26) and the north-east coast of the USA (bioregion 7). Out of the all ports the ballast waters are transported from, to the Szczecin harbor there are 12.4% donor ports in the very high risk category, 3.5% ports in the high risk category, 53.1% ports in the medium risk category and 31% ports in the low risk category. The ports which the ballast waters taken from that appear the most risky to the environment of the Szczecin harbor are: Antwerp and Ghent (Belgium), Hamburg, Bremen, Butzfleth and Vierow (Germany), Goole, Keadby, Londonderry and Sutton Bridge (Great Britain), Rotterdam and Terneuzen (Holland), Frederikstadt (Norway) and Rochefort (France). It is worth mentioning that these appear to be big ports called at by vessels from all over the world and their waters can be strongly polluted with various kinds of fauna and flora organisms brought there literally from all over the world. It seems reasonable to broaden the above research by including other ports in West Pomerania and expanding the range of this research by testing ballast waters and sediments for the species contained in the water transported. References Behrens, H.L., Leppäkoski, E., Olenin, S. (2005). Ballast Water Risk Assessment Guidelines for the North Sea and Baltic Sea, Nordic Innovation Centre NT Techn. Report 587, Approved 12. Oslo, Norway, www.nordicinnovation.net Briggs, JC. (1974). Marine Zoogeography. McGraw-Hill, New York. 475 pp. Dickman, M., Zhang, F. (1999). Mid-ocean exchange of container vessel ballast water. 2. Effects of vessel type in the transport of diatoms and dinoflagellates from Manzanillo, Mexico, to Hong Kong, China. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 176: 253-262. Drake L, Meyer, A, Forsberg, R, and other (2005). Potential invasion of microorganisms and pathogens via ‘interior hull fouling’: biofilms inside ballast water tanks. Biological Invasions 7, 969-982. Doblin, M., D. Reid, F. Dobbs, D. and other (2001). Assessment of Transoceanic Nobob Vessels and Low-Salinity Ballast Water as Vectors for Nonindigenous Species Introductions to the Great Lakes. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Marine Bioinvasions, New Orleans, La., April 9-11, 2001, pp. 34-35. Ekman S. (1953). Zoogeography of the Sea. Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd., London, 417 pp. Gollasch S., Leppakoski E. (1999). Initial Risk Assessment of Alien Species in Nordic Coastal waters, Nodic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen. Gollasch S., Leppäkoski E. (2007). Risk assessment and management scenarios for ballast water mediated species introductions into the Baltic Sea. Aquatic Invasions Volume 2, Issue 4: 313-340. Hamer, J., Collin T., Lucas I... (2000). Dinoflagellates cysts in ballast tank sediments: Between tank variability. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 40: 731-733. Large Marine Ecosystems (2008). Information Portal, http://www.edc.uri.edu/lme. Locke, A., Reid D., Leeuwen H.C., and other (1993). Ballast water exchange as a means of controlling dispersal of freshwater organisms by ships. Can. J. Fish. Aqua. Sci. 50: 2086-2093. Polish Harbors Information and Control System – PHICS, UM Szczecin (2008). Santagata S., Zita R. Gasiūnaite Z.R. and other (2008). Effect of osmotic shock as a management strategy to reduce transfers of nonindigenous species among low-salinity ports by ships. Aquatic Invasions Volume 3, Issue 1: 61-76. Walk M., Modrzejewska H. (2007). Ocena ryzyka zawleczenia obcych gatunków na podstawie zaleceń HELCOM – Określenie zagrożenia introdukcji gatunków obcych w Zatoce Gdańskiej na podstawie badan wód balastowych CTO S.A. Gdańsk. World Shipping Register (Sea Distances and Voyage Calculator) - www.sea-distances.org (2014).