A company based in the United States, Sea-Bird Scientific, is successfully advancing technology for the rapid viability assessment of phytoplankton that is used for analysing ballast water samples.
The technology works by assessing an organism’s viability to reproduce using fluorescence methods and the organism’s ability to undergo photorepair. It is important to understand an organism’s ability to reproduce as it helps to ensure that ballast water is treated properly and in compliance with regulation.
The technology allows organism assessment to be carried out within a few minutes, which aims to meet the demand for rapid operational assessments by organisations such as Port State Control (PSC) for monitoring compliance for the 10 to 50 μm organism class.
The technology has demonstrated a strong correlation with proven culture-based reproductive assessments such as the Most Probable Number (MPN) method.
At the current time, sampling of ballast water at port has many practical limitations and can create difficulties and obstacles for the industry, however, this technology is thought to be a breakthrough in easing the assessment of ballast water by PSC.
Dr. Andrew Barnard, Chief Technology Officer, Sea-Bird Scientific commented: “We are excited about this emerging technology and believe it has significant potential to aide in the enforcement of ballast water regulations.”
Ship Efficiency Review News
To contact the reporter responsible for this article, please email editor@fathom-mi.com
