Ballast water the key vector for aquatic species invasions? Stephan Gollasch GoConsult Hamburg, Germany www.gollaschconsulting.de
Content Fact sheet shipping Regional overviews on introduced species with relative vector importance Invasion rates International response Summary Outlook
Fact Sheet Shipping > 40,000 merchant vessels registered Discharge of > 3 billion to ballast water > 4,000 species in transit at any time > 1,000 taxa sampled from ballast tanks ranging from unicellular algae to fish Organism density median in ballast water: phytoplankton 13,300 cells / l zooplankton 400 ind./m³
Regions Considered
San Francisco Bay - USA 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Number fouling, boring ballast water aquaculture stocking ornamental unkown solid ballast biocontrol science n = 213 after Cohen & Carlton 1995 Vector
bait science 250 200 150 100 50 0 Mediterranean Sea fouling ballast aquaculture range expansion stocking ornamental Vector Lessepsian Number n = 647
Port Philippe Bay - Australia Number 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 n = 167 hullfouling after Hewitt, Campbell, Thresher & Martin 1999 ballast water Vector mariculture semi-dry ballast
Relative Vector Importance 55 Vector Hawaii PPB SFB S-Afr Braz Med Ire NS BS Bl Ar EU-At 50 fouling 45 80,0 54,9 27,2 47,1 19,5 27,6 21,5 21,8 16,5 16,9 31,4 26,7 ballast 40 23,3 23,8 41,2 29,9 27,4 19 30,9 37,4 31,3 11,4 25,6 aquaculture 19,3 23,3 11,8 46,8 20,4 31,6 21,2 25,3 34,3 34,4 35 solid 30ballast 2,5 3,5 stocking 25 11,4 7,7 13,9 13,6 37,4 15,7 11,4 6,7 range exp. 13,0 6,3 5,8 2,9 1,2 11,4 3,1 20 ornamental 15 7,9 3,9 2,7 6,3 4,2 5,8 8,4 2,6 biocontrol 2 10 science 5 1 0,3 1,3 1,8 1 bait 0,8 0,6 1,2 0 fouling PPB aquaculture SFB S-Afr ballast Braz Med stocking Ire NS range exp. Wildlife & Center for International Environmental Law for COP-7, Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 2004) BS Bl ornamental Ar EU- At Data for Hawaii cover marine introduced invertebrates (The Nature Conservancy, Defenders of
Vector Importance Fouling, aquaculture and ballast water are the most important vectors in the regions considered Mean values of vector importance across all regions result in hull fouling being the most important vector Vector Mean all fouling 32,6 ballast 27,4 aquaculture 26,8 stocking 14,7 range exp. 6,2 ornamental 5,2 solid ballast 3,0 biocontrol 2,0 science 1,1 bait 0,9
Regional Comparison of Hull Fouling vs. Ballast Water In eight regions hull fouling is the dominating vector (Arct, PPB, S-Afr., Region SFB, Ire, EU-At, Med, Hawaii) Invaders in four regions are mostly introduced by ballast water (Braz., NS, BlackS, BS) fouling ballast Hawaii 80,0 n.d. PPB 54,9 23,3 S-Afr 47,1 41,2 Arct 31,4 11,4 Med 27,6 27,4 SFB 27,2 23,8 EU-At 26,7 25,6 Ire 21,5 19,0 Braz 19,5 29,9 NS 21,8 30,9 BS 16,5 37,4 Bl 16,9 31,3
European Focus Seas of all EU Member states plus Norway, non- EU Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea (approx. 80,000 km coastline) Adjacent water bodies (lakes, estauries etc.) Temperature range from arctic to warm-temparate conditions Salinity range from freshwater to marine conditions Various habitats including rocky shores, sandy beaches, mud flats
Overview 1,036 non-indigenous species are known to occur in the regions considered The region with the highest number of invaders is the Mediterranean Sea Re g io n Numbe r % Mediterranean Sea 647 46,1 North Sea 280 20,0 Atlantic coast 168 12,0 Baltic Sea 141 10,0 Black Sea 85 6,1 Irish Waters 64 4,6 Arctic waters 18 1,3 Total 1403
Invaders per Region 18 established 64 280 141 un-established unknown 168 647 85
Invaders per Region Most invaders occur in one region (so far) However, 5 invaders Number of are known from 6 regions: regions Ficopomatus enigmaticus invaded Eriocheir sinensis Elodea canadensis Colpomenia peregrina Bannemaisonia hamifera Number of invaders Another 5 species were found throughout the entire 7 regions considered: Teredo navalis, Mya arenaria, Crassostrea gigas, Balanus improvisis and Oncorhynchus mykiss % 1 816 80,6 2 93 9,2 3 55 5,4 4 24 2,4 5 15 1,5 6 5 0,5 7 5 0,5
Invaders According to Taxonomic Groups Taxon. Group Number % ZOOBENTHOS 544 53,7 FISH 185 18,3 PHYTOBENTHOS 170 16,8 PHYTOPLANKTON 61 6,0 ZOOPLANKTON 38 3,8 PROTOZOA 15 1,5 More than half of the invaders known are zoobenthos species Is this the best studied group?
Established vs. un-established 350 300 250 200 150 established unestablished unknown 100 50 0 Mediterranean Sea North Sea Atlantic coast Baltic Sea Black Sea Irish Waters Arctic waters
Timeline of invasions all EU regions 200 150 100 50 Number 0 1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 Decade
Invasion SFB 32 rate PPB 41,5 Data since 1800 Max: every 4,3 months a new species in Med. Min: every 4 years in Irish&NW UK Mean: 1,5 years Pearl Harbour, Hawaii New Zealand Coos Bay Mediterranean Sea North Sea EU-Atlantic Baltic Sea Black Sea Irish Waters & NW-UK 46 80 85 17,3 48,9 79,8 81,6 137,8 212,2 Non-EU data from Hewitt et al. 1999 0 50 100 150 200 250 Number of weeks per invasion
Invasion rate Mediterranean Sea 6,2 Data since 1950 Max: every 6,2 weeks a new species in Med. Min: every 2.6 years in Irish&NW UK Mean: 0,9 years North Sea EU-Atlantic Baltic Sea Black Sea Irish Waters & NW-UK 22,5 36,5 36,9 51,1 133,7 0 50 100 150 Number of weeks per invasion
Changes in Introduction Vectors EU 60 BW regulations Number 50 40 30 20 aquaculture ballast fouling raising awarenes on species movements ICES WGITMO 10 0 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Decade when species first reported
Global vs. Regional Approach 40 20 [%] 32,6 World 27,4 26,8 40 20 0 [%] Mediterranean Sea 27,6 27,4 20,4 fouling ballast aquaculture 0 fouling ballast aquaculture 40 20 0 [%] Europe 15,1 20,7 14,0 fouling ballast aquaculture 40 20 0 [%] Adriatic Sea 25,9 24,1 25,9 fouling ballast aquaculture
International Response - Shipping International Maritime Organization Marine Environment Protection Committee Ballast Water Working Group during 14 years of work two guidelines and the International Ballast Water Management Convention were prepared Convention on Anti-fouling Systems Various national regulations on ballast water and hull fouling Ballast Water Strategies in development in Europe (EU, HELCOM, OSPAR, ICES)
Summary Most important introducing vectors are hull fouling, ballast water and aquaculture Vector importance is regionally very different In 8 of 12 regions considered ( = 60%) hull fouling is the dominating vector Introductions for aquaculture purposes are the key vector in three regions The invasion rate is increasing towards the end of the last century
Outlook Ballast water regulations will hopefully reduce the invasion rate However, even if the vector ballast water is regulated species invasions will continue as hull fouling is an important and regionally even the dominating vector
Thank you very much for your attention! sgollasch@aol.com www.gollaschconsulting.de