Composition of copepoda in ballast water of ships entering Korea -Part Ⅰ: Pusan and Ulsan harbors-

Abstract

We examined composition of copepoda in ballast waters of twenty one ships entered Pusan and Ulsan harbors. The ballast waters stored from 1 to 158 days originated from the coast of Indonesia, China, Japan, USA and Philippines, Thailand, and from the open sea. Most ballast water were taken from Asian countries, such as China (9 ships) and Japan (4 ships) including four cases of open sea. There were nine cargo & bulk carriers, which were 43% of twenty one ships investigated. Apart from them, there were seven container ships and five oil tankers, respectively. The number of copepoda species found in ballast waters varied from two to thirteen depending on the loading places where the ballast waters were taken. Most zooplankton identified were commonly found species in the coast and off shore of Korea as most ships' ballast waters were taken from geographically neighboring countries around Asia. A further investigation of ship's ballast water from other continents is required to study the issues, such as non-indigenous species. The relationship between the species number and the storage period of ballast water was not significant