Composition of copepoda in ballast water of ships entered Korea -Part Ⅱ: Kwangyang and Incheon harbors-

Abstract

We examined composition of copepoda in ballast waters of nine ships entered Kwangyang and Incheon harbors. Ballast waters were taken at the coast of China, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. Among them, five ships’ ballast waters were taken at the Chinese coast. Seven ships were cargo & bulk carriers, while there was an oil tanker and a car carrier respectively. The number of copepod species found in nine ships’ ballast water ranged two to seventeen. Most of them were indigenous along the Korean coast as the origin of ships’ ballast waters were from neighboring countries around Asia. However, some freshwater and non-indigenous species were identified. Therefore, we need to investigate further whether these species can settle down in Korean coastal waters. There are difficulties of collecting and comparing samples from ships' ballast waters as each ship has a different capacity and structure of ballast water tank. A sampling method should be standardized in the future to consider structural differences between ships and habitational differences between planktonic organisms due to the water depth.