Assessing the Relationship Between Propagule Pressure and Invasion Risk in Ballast Water

The Water Science and Technology Board, part of the National Academies’ Division on Earth and Life Studies (DELS), has released a report designed to help inform the regulation of ballast water by helping the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard better understand the relationship between the concentration of living organisms in ballast water discharges and the probability of nonindigenous organisms successfully establishing populations in U.S. waters.

The report evaluates the risk-release relationship in the context of differing environmental and ecological conditions,including estuarine and freshwater systems as well as the waters of the three-mile territorial sea.

It recommends how various approaches can be used by regulatory agencies to best inform risk management decisions on the allowable concentrations of living organisms in discharged ballast water in order to safeguard against the establishment of new aquatic nonindigenous species, and to protect and preserve existing indigenous populations of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and other beneficial uses of the nation's waters.

DELS, like TRB, is a division of the National Academies, which include the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council.

A Report in Brief on the report is available online.