Investigation Of Invasive Species In Ballast Waters Daniela Klisarova

During the last years an unusual form of pollution by the merchant ships, seriously harm the Black sea ecosystem.Thus the exotic species accidentally transported from the other parts of the Ocean with the ballast waters pumped out close to the Black sea coast were adapted successfully and developed violently, because they have not natural enemies to restrict their population.Investigation of the ballast waters by taking samples from ship's ballast tanks carried out in 2008-2009 in the frame of the national project. Within the frame of this project an useful contacts was established between the Institute of Fish Resources and Maritime Administration Directorate - Varna. The discussions held and expressed opinions allowed to suggest that ballast water exchange in the Black Sea regardless of the region poses risks for the ecosystem.Comparing the results from the project and previous multiannual data for Port of Varna and Varna-West shows tendency of decreasing of the invasive phytoplankton, zooplankton and zoobenthos species. In the regions where high phytoplankton values have been registered there were not negative consequences for the bottom fauna.The aim of the paper was to prove existence of plankton and benthos species and their origin. The general picture of ballast water sample analysis shows availability of phytoplankton and proterozoic species but absence of macrozooplankton and zoobenthos species.The determined species were mainly from the Mediterranean and domestic origin. On basis investigation and analysis of the main World ports was found that the basic donors of introduction species are Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The analyses of ship's samples shows that the exchange of the ballast were carried out in the open sea area as per Rules Ballast water analysis of the Bulgarian Black Sea area was performed for the first time.