Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 2004)

Government Update

Ballast Water Management Acquiring Teeth

Francisco Bay region, burrowing into percent and 25 percent of the different early to determine whether they will and weakening dikes and levees, as well species of plants and animals found in have deleterious impacts on the local as competing with local species. A coastal waters of California may be non- biosphere. recent study indicates that between 6 indigenous. For many of these, it is too In an effort to slow the spread of

Dennis L. Bryant, Senior Maritime

Counsel at the law firm of Holland & Knight, Washington, D.C., is a contributing editor of MR/EN.

Effective August 13, 2004. the U.S.

Coast Guard will have the authority to impose civil penalties of up to $27,500 per day against vessels that fail to sub- mit ballast water management reports.

The basic ballast water management program has been in existence for some years, but submittal of reports has been largely voluntary since the agency lacked the power to require submittal.

As a result, participation in the program has been abysmal - at less than 30 per- cent. It is expected that participation will rapidly become universal as the penalty regime takes hold.

The goal of ballast water management is to reduce the risk of transport in a ship's ballast tanks of aquatic species from one location to another where the species is not indigenous and may have no natural enemies. A prime example of dangers pose by nonindigenous aquatic species is the zebra mussel. In the early 1980s, these shellfish were apparently brought to the North American Great

Lakes by ships involved in transporting wheat from the United States to Soviet

Union ports on the Black Sea. Return trips were largely made empty, carrying only ballast water. Now zebra mussels invest the Great Lakes and other water bodies in North America, clogging water intakes and driving out native species.

Damages and resultant control expenses are estimated to cost $500 million annu- ally.

While zebra mussels are the best known of the non-indigenous aquatic species, they are by no means alone.

The European Green Crab, now found on the both coasts of North America, is a voracious predator that feeds on bivalve mollusks and small crustaceans.

The Chinese Mitten Crab (which may have been introduced illegally as a food source) has spread through the San

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July 2004 11

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