Development a Monitoring System for Detecting Marine Microorganisms in Ballast Water

Research Article

Austin Environ Sci. 2016; 1(2): 1009.

Development a Monitoring System for Detecting Marine Microorganisms in Ballast Water

Jung J-Y¹*, Park YS², Shon DH3, Kim EC³ and Oh J-H4

¹Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering, Republic of Korea

²Ocean Science and Technology (OST) School, Republic of Korea

³Techcross Inc., Republic of Korea

4Maritime Safety Research Division, Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering, Republic of Korea

*Corresponding author: Jung-Yeul Jung, Technology Center for Offshore Plant Industries, Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering, KIOST, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea

Received: July 08, 2016; Accepted: October 03, 2016; Published: October 05, 2016

Abstract

The problems of marine invasive species carried by ballast water are greatly severe due to the growing trade using shipping, especially last two decades. Ballast water treatment systems to tackle the problems have been developed. However we need a monitoring system to evaluate the performance of the treatment systems. In this study, a monitoring system using micro fluidic devices has been developed to detect living marine species in ballast water. The monitoring system consists of two sub-systems; one is for 10-50 μm species and the other for >50 μm ones, which was designed to be used in situ on ships. The results of this study showed that the developed system to assess the working performance of the ballast water treatment system will be useful in the international commercial ships.

Keywords: Ballast water; Marine bio pollution; Monitoring system; Phytoplankton; Zoo plankton

Introduction

Ballast water is used essentially to maintain stability and safety of ships during no shipping [1-2]. Ballast water is pumped-in to maintain safe operating conditions throughout a voyage. This practice reduces stress on the hull, provides transverse stability, improves propulsion and maneuverability, and compensates for weight lost due to fuel and water consumption. Since all ships are designed for a certain weight range, ballast is used to compensate forum loaded cargo [3]. International Maritime Organization (IMO) estimates that each year about 10 billion tons of ballast water are transported and exchanged around the world during maritime shipping [4]. However the problems of marine invasive species carried by ballast water are greatly severe due to the growing trade using shipping, especially last decade.

Furthermore some non-invasive species may become invasive and negatively affect native species or near shore habitats. So the treatment, sampling and assess men of the marine species in the ballast water and marine environments have been paid extensive attention throughout the globe [5-21]. Although there are so many researches on the ballast water treatment systems [2, 6, 12, 14-16, 20, 22], the monitoring system to assess the treatment system has been rarely reported to date.

In this study, we developed a monitoring system to detect living marine species in ballast water. The monitoring system consists of two sub-systems; one is for 10~50 μm species and the other for >50 μm ones, which was designed to be used in situ on ships. The fluorescence due to the chlorophyll and the dyes is used for detecting the 10-50 μm species while the movement of organisms is used for detecting the >50 μm species. The results of this study showed that the developed system to assess the working performance of the ballast water treatment system will be useful in the international commercial ships.

Experiments

Image analysis with time: for >50 μm species

For the relatively large species (i.e. >50 μm in this study), the motion of the organism was monitored to detect alive ones. The bio species, which are >50 μm, are easily observed using ×20 lens. Figure 1 shows the counting chamber (a) and the counting point (b). The counting chamber is made using PDMS to obtain CCD images. The chamber is evacuated, and then is filled with 10 ml of concentrated sample. Using CCS camera, we simply obtained the images of the sample with 30 sec of time period at the indicated five regions in (Figure 1) (b). (Figure 2) shows the image analysis process; (a) taking an original CCD image, (b) converting into binary image, and (c) selecting an object. The whole process is as follows;