Title

Brine-induced mortality of non-indigenous invertebrates in residual ballast water

Author ORCID Identifier

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-732X

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2010

Publication Title

Marine Environmental Research

Volume

70

Issue

5

First Page

395

Last Page

401

Abstract

All transoceanic vessels entering the Great Lakes are required to manage ballast water and ballast tank residuals with ballast water exchange and tank flushing, respectively. While these management procedures effectively reduce the density and richness of biota in ballast waters and thereby reduce the risk of transferring non-indigenous species, some ships are unable to uniformly manage all tanks. Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate sodium chloride brine as an emergency treatment for ballast tanks with non-compliant residuals. Invertebrate communities collected from i) Detroit River, ii) exchanged ballast tanks arriving in the Great Lakes, and iii) North Sea ports, were exposed to a range of brine concentrations (15-115‰) until complete mortality was reached. Results indicate that a 1-h exposure to 115‰ brine is a broadly effective treatment (>99.9% mortality) regardless of treatment temperature, taxonomic group, or species' source habitat salinity. A median of 0.00% (range 0.00-5.33) of individuals are expected to survive treatment and the expected number of viable individuals released after treatment is within Canadian and proposed international discharge standards. Before implementation, validation with ship-scale trials is recommended. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

DOI

10.1016/j.marenvres.2010.08.003

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