Using Microwaves To Cook Ballast Stowaways

Smivs writes "US researchers say they have developed an effective way to kill unwanted plants and animals that hitch a ride in the ballast waters of cargo vessels. Tests showed that a continuous microwave system was able to remove all marine life within the water tanks. The UN lists 'invasive species' dispersed by ballast water discharges as one of the four main threats to the world's marine ecosystems. For example European zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) have infested more than 40% of the US's inland waterways. Between 1989 and 2000, up to $1B is estimated to have been spent on controlling the spread of the alien invader."

Too little too late

Even if this works, in many cases invasive species are already well entrenched and the damage is done. The example cited of the zebra mussels, for instance, has created a huge problem for some inland fisheries in the US. The problem has been known for years but nobody has really tried to do much about it until now.

Re:Too little too late

Skinner: Well, I was wrong; the lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.

Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

Re:Too little too late

In Australia the Cane Toad was introduced as a natural predator for the imported ("i forget") species. It turned out to be much worse than the original problem.

Re:Too little too late

Yes, it has. Snakes were introduced into one of the Indonesian islands to deal with an introduced toad. Turns out that some of the indigenous animals were a lot easier for the snakes to catch. As a result, the local animal life is not only threatened by the toads, but also by the snake. If I'm off on the details, my apologies - I couldn't find the original story. This isn't the only story though. There have been a few attempts to introduce natural predators, and they've generally all turned up atrocious and unpredicted side effects. The reason this isn't done is because it's been tried before, and the end-result wasn't any better.

Re:Too little too late

The only cases I've heard of that working in is where we "reintroduced" predators back into their natural habitat. We killed off a bunch of wolves, and then restored their population successfully. I don't think it's ever been done to bring in a foreign predator.

Re:Too little too late

Some environmentalist has to tell me why we don't just import its natural predator. And don't give me crap about 'well it could be an invasive species too.' If it's high up the food chain, it will be forced to live in equilibrium with its prey. Has it ever even been tried?

Well in other cases, yes - it has been tried [wikipedia.org]. Unfortunately that hasn't worked out so well.

Re:Too little too late

The problem is that predators usually are not restricted to a single kind of prey, so they will not only control the organism you want to get rid of but prey on indigenous species that you don't want it to. A case in point is the rabbit problem in New Zealand, which has no indigenous mammals. Introducing predators such as foxes or coyotes is not an acceptable solution because they will also eat the various species of flightless birds. Even when there is a specialized predator, it is very difficult to be sure that it will stay specialized.

Re:Too little too late

Come to Australia, we have bettles, toads, horses, donkeys, water buffalo, pigs, rabbits, foxes, mice, rats, sparrows, starlings, starfish and more wild camels than Saudi Arabia. Every single one of them plus the many species I have ommited are pests.

Re:Too little too late

Come to Australia, we have bettles, toads, horses, donkeys, water buffalo, pigs, rabbits, foxes, mice, rats, sparrows, starlings, starfish and more wild camels than Saudi Arabia. Every single one of them plus the many species I have ommited are pests.

Have you considered removing them from your flat? That might make a difference on how you look at wildlife.

Re:Too little too late

That being said, don't starfish eat mussels? I recall seeing a sped up video of some starfish decimating a group of mussels over an afternoon. Finding a zebra mussel-eating starfish may not solve the issue, but the footage was incredible! ;)

-ghostis

Re:Too little too late

Yeah, I read this story. Eventually the lion eats the people. ;)

Re:Too little too late

The great lakes were dying from pollution before the zebra mussels.

At least the water that goes downstream is cleaner than it would be otherwise.

Hey, when life hands you a lemon ...

Re:Life, lemons and unexpected outcomes

Talk to anyone who does wreck diving in the Great Lakes. The water used to be really crappy - in fact, in areas it was about as opaque as a glass of lemonade. Or mud. Now it's a LOT clearer.

What we SHOULD be doing is laying removable mesh "beds" for zebra mussels to breed on outside every sewer discharge. Once a good colony is going, remove a portion of the bed each week and grind the mussels up for fertilizer or glue or fish food or whatever.

Henry Ford had the right idea - let people dump anything they want in the river, provided their water intake is downstream of it. After all, if you expect people downstream from you to drink it, you should be prepared to as well ... the zebra mussels are doing a lot of the work that we should be doing, but aren't.

I think not....

Microwaves confuse the molecules and these molecules of nutrition then misbehave and cause disorders such as cancer, diabetes and hair loss. This would be detrimental to anything that ate the food that was microwaved.

A better solution, I propose, is to simply put some spent nuclear fuel into the ballast tank to kill off any invasive species before dumping the ballast water.

Posing as AC b/c I work for an environmental consulting firm...and my boss would fire me if he knew I was this "green".

Why it's important to RTFA

I thought this was a method to take care of STOWAWAYS. you know, like people trying to sneak into the country.

My first thought was, "Wow, that sounds effective."

My second was, "But that is kinda harsh."

My thirs, "Cooooooool."

Re:Why it's important to RTFA

Same thought, here! I was picturing this system being adapted to zap those poor schmucks that hold onto the landing gear of jet aircraft. At least they wouldn't have to worry any more about freezing to death at high altitude.

"Excuse me, stewardess? Is something burning in the kitchen? Smells like bologna..."

The Fail Boat

If you've seen pictures of the Fail Boat [flickr.com] around the internet, you might be interested to know the story behind it [wired.com] (link is to printer version). In short, the whole ordeal happened as a result of the requirement that they dump ballast water before entering US waters. The story on Wired covers the accident as well as the salvage operation and is an excellent read.

It appears that this is a dangerous enough process that it was worth eliminating it. That, or they're just trying to cut down on travel time by not having to stop - but that's just the cynic in me talking.

Re:The Fail Boat

Sorry to nitpick, but I'd say the cause was more directly a result of failed ballast tank equipment. It would have happened eventually with or without the law.

What about the railroads?

Could Burlington Northern, for example, use this to solve their hobo problem?

I'm just asking.

What can happen using low tech

To anyone concerned about frying the microbes, Wired had a very readable story on what can happen sometimes when the ballast is handled the conventional way:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/ff_seacowboys?currentPage=all [wired.com]

*spoiler* essentially current cargo ships headed to the U.S. have to flush their ballast in international waters and refill with local seawater. The Cougar Ace somehow managed to screw up this step and went askew (see pic). There were many quite grave consequences.

Granted, it's not standard operating protocol to end up with losses like this just too keep out invasive species, but it does illustrate some of the challenges and extent of trouble people go to to comply with this kind of ecological directive. Plus it was a damn well-written story I enjoyed reading.

Chinese Mitten Crab Comes To Hudson River

People started finding Chinese Mitten crabs in the Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay and balast discharge was mentioned:

  http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/35888.html [ny.gov]

I read articles that make them sound like "rats of the sea" but they do eat them in China so maybe they are good eating (trying to be hopeful).

"The fact they will climb over dams, go on shore into people's swimming pools, burrow into banks, we sure as hell don't need them here," Gabrielson said. "I really believe there's not a damn thing in the world we can do about it."

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070615/NEWS/706150327 [recordonline.com]

Another way - Use nitrogen.

Another way that has been suggested is to bubble pure nitrogen through the ballast water.

It purges the water of oxygen, killing any marine life. It also has the benefit of stopping corrosion.

It does have the downside of making the ships hull an instant death (asphyxiation) hazard.

Other uses...

With apologies to Monty Python's "The Undertakers" sketch:
[For you youngsters: s/ballast/mother/g;]

• ...
• Fred: I'll get the oven on!
• Man: Um, er...excuse me, um, are you... are you suggesting we should eat my ballast?
• Undertaker: Yeah. Not raw, not raw. We cook 'em. They'll be delicious with a few french fries, a bit of stuffing. Delicious! (smacks his lips)
• Man: What! (he stammers)
• Man: Actually, I do feel a bit peckish - No! NO, I can't!
• Undertaker: Look, we'll eat your ballast. Then, if you feel a bit guilty about it afterwards, we can dig a pit and you can throw up into it.
• Man: All right.

Re:Mussels?!

Can we eat them? Problem solved.

No, not really. They filter tons of water and end up collecting all sorts of contaminants, for one thing. They're a royal pain to remove from any surface, for another, very small, and very sharp.

Re:Great! But...

Not true. They can also be microwaved.

And in answer to the followup question - delicious!