Disinfection Ballast water
Disinfecting ballast water
| Ballast water is being used for the stability of the ship. Large ships can uses millions of gallons of ballast water. The ballast water is pumped in to the ship at the harbour which it's in and deposited in the next habour it goes to.
The problem when this ballast water is pumped into the ship it also loads many of the organisms living in that port. These organisms vary from microbes to whole schools of fish. Some of these so called 'exotic' organismes that survive the trip, can do damage in the next harbour (port). Problems are disturbance of the biodiversity (eco system) which can cause for example low fishing rates and it can bring diseases like cholera which is dangerous for humans. Up to 3000 different species are transported this way a day!
A solution is to load and dispose at sea, but many countries don't support this idea. Criteria for Selecting a Treatment Method
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