Composition of Ballast Water from Ships Arriving at Kertih Port, Malaysia with Observations on Port and Offshore Waters, and Notes on Settlement Patterns of Fouling Organisms

Abstract

We investigated plankton composition and water quality of ballast water from seven international ships docked at Kertih Port, Malaysia. Coscinodiscophyceae and cyanobacteria were the dominant phytoplankton found in ballast water samples, whereas copepod nauplii, Oithona sp., Microstella sp. and Paracalanus sp. were the dominant zooplankton. The densities for both phytoplankton and zooplankton in ships' ballast and port waters were higher than those of offshore samples. All water quality parameters (except Cr) of port samples were within the safety levels prescribed for ports, oil and gas fields (Class 3) by the Malaysia Marine Water Quality Criteria Standard. The study of fouling organisms using PVC panels revealed that brown algae covered 87-95% of the panels' surface area but they were subsequently succeeded by barnacles, bivalves and red encrusting algae. Barnacle recruitment, however, was greatly influenced by crab predation which left behind a high percentage cover of barnacle bases as calcareous deposits on panels. KEYWORDS Fouling organisms PhytoplanktonShip ballast water Water quality Zooplankton

An inter-site study of biofouling recruitment on static immersion panels in major ports of South East Asia and India

“…These sites strategically represent major port areas where regional and transregional shipping activities were taking place, including infrastructure assets such as commercial (i.e., container), passenger and shipyard terminals. These sites were located (in alphabetical order of country) in Muara Port, Brunei Darussalam (Jolkifli and Wahab 2018); Goa, India (Desai et al 2018); Tanjong Priok Port, Indonesia (Hadiyanto 2018); VTE Port, Lao PDR; Kertih Port, Malaysia (Hing et al 2018); Yangon Port, Myanmar (Khaing 2018); Republic of Singapore Yacht Club, Singapore; Songkhla Port, Thailand (Puttapreecha et al 2018); Manila Bay (South Harbor), Philippines (Nacorda et al 2018); and Hai Phong Port, Vietnam (Figure 1). Of these sites, only VTE Port (Lao PDR) was located inland along the Mekong River.…”