Bioinvasion

Bioinvasion

© Sabari Ganesh; “All Rights Reserved” 
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            Invasion is the forced entry of a stranger into a territory that is occupied by its natural inhabitants. The entry is undesired, opposed and eventually harms the territory and its inhabitants. Invasion is applicable as much as to the flora and fauna, as it is to humans. The entrant, due to the absence of its natural control and check parameters in the invaded territory, flourishes at a comparatively rapid rate than its home territory. This eventually destroys the naturally occurring entity of the invaded locality.

            The impact of trade has resulted in the cross border movement of human beings. Along with humans, live stock, pet animals, plants and eventually disease causing pests have also been translocated, either intentionally or unintentionally. The result is the proliferation of the exotic species of plants and animals across the world that is artificially introduced in the territory. They are non-native and in the long run have had a devastating effect on the native species of the region; in spite of the initial economic benefit accrued due to their presence and utility.

            The irony is that, there has always been a trend to discuss the negative impacts of bioinvasion only when a marked threat characterized by a detrimental social and economic impact is recorded and reported. By the time any plan of action is agreed upon in the forum of delegates; the cost to eradicate and control, and impact of the reported invasion becomes exponential, due to the rapid flourishing of these exotic invaders that ultimately threatens the natural biodiversity of the region, followed by habitat loss.

            The top brains of the world, who till date were boasting on the economic benefit achieved due to international trade in a borderless world, have of late begun to realize that the threat and loss accrued by the invasion of these exotic flora and fauna has been more rampant. The economic benefit, when compared to the threat and loss to the ecosystem and the loss of habitat, has been only superficial and actually farce. The reason being, the cost of curbing and controlling the spread and destruction of these exotic invaders; and the loss till their eradication when taken into account is more than the economic gains accrued out of international trade.

            Bioinvasion which has gained so much importance due to its notoriety can be caused by a host of factors that are intentional, unintentional or natural. The multidimensional impact of bioinvasion has rendered the identification and classification of its factors a herculean task. The translocation of ornamental fishes can be cited as a classic instance of voluntary and intentional bioinvasion. The pet fishing industry, increased productivity and stock enhancement are the propelling factors. The result witnessed is the introduction of at least 300 and odd exotic species of ornamental fishes; however, the impact is controlled as they remain confined in aquariums.

The detrimental effect of an exotic invader, which is introduced voluntarily for its economic benefit but failed to be controlled is inevitable and exponential. A classic instance is the Golden Apple Snail that was brought into Asia from South America for its high levels of protein content but in due course devastated the staple food crop of the region - rice paddy! Needless to mention, the damage is more than the benefit achieved.

The major and unavoidable unintentional instance of bioinvasion is Marine Bioinvasion. As we all know and agree, the major vector of international trade is the shipping industry. With ships as the major carrier of goods from one region to the other, organisms that get attached to the hull or sea chest of these ships are also translocated. Since this kind of translocation is unintentional and unplanned, the organisms are translocated in various stages of their life-cycle.

Apart from the external parts of the ships that act as vectors of bioinvasion, the ballast tanks of ships play a major role in the translocation of these exotic species, across the world. Any ship is sailable only if the propeller and rudder remain submerged in the sea. The ship needs to have a minimum weight for these to remain submerged. The cargo that is loaded on to the ship would provide the ship the necessary weight for the propeller and rudder to remain submerged in the ocean. When the ship offloads its cargo at a port, the ocean water is filled into the ships intentionally, in specific chambers called Ballast tanks for the ship to maintain its minimum required weight.

These ballast tanks are managed with their contents at the vicinity of the ports for obvious reasons. The ballast tanks are so huge to the extent that a bulk cargo ship of 200000 tonnes can carry up to 60000 tonnes of ballast water. Roughly about 4 billion tonnes of water is translocated by such ships every year! Along with the ballast water, the flora and fauna of the region is also sucked into the ballast tanks at the cargo off-loading port only to be discharged at the port where cargo would be loaded again. The significance of bioinvasion arising out of ballast water discharge can be attributed to the enormous quantity of marine water that gets translocated as a result.

A significant devastating impact of the exotic invader translocated through the Ballast water discharge is the epidemic cholera reported in Peru in the year 1991 which had spread throughout Latin America and Mexico; claimed the lives of over 10,000 people. No wonder, international organisations have marked bio-invasion as the second greatest threat to biological diversity, next only to habitat degradation.

            The invaders are also found to possess certain innate characteristics that aid their flourishing in the introduced environment. Some worth mentioning would be their ability to endure abiotic factors and hibernation during unfavourable periods. They end up disrupting the natural food chain of the invaded territory, leading to habitat loss. The biological pollution thus caused by the invaders, and the methods and precautions to eradicate, control and prevent their further entry has surfaced to become the most important issue in the global forum of trade related talks.

            Though we have to agree without variance that not every invaded species are destructive; however their percentage to the overall number of the exotic invaders is negligible. Though around half of the available flora in New Zealand is exotic; specific species are indentified as beneficial and are permitted to import by way of licensing; as an act of precautionary principle. In the event of unintentional imports of these exotic species that are harmful, the immediate control and confinement measures are enacted as per the stipulations laid down and classified under the Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The SPS Measures is a system of trade rules and procedures that intend to protect the human, plant and animal health of the importing country from the exotic invaders as a result of international trade. The sanitary measures concern human and animal health, while the Phyto-sanitary measures concern the plant health. The issue with the SPS measures is the free hand given to member nations to stipulate individualistic levels of the quality standard as proved and deemed necessary on scientific basis for protecting its plant, animal and human health.

The effective removal of quantitative restrictions and tariff, with the intention of promoting free trade among the world nations, under the auspices of WTO, has only paved way for discovering new arena to be used as barriers to trade, of course with masked effect. The sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, is one such that is being increasingly used as a trade barrier, without any concern for ethics in trade among nations.

This practice is effectively adopted by both the developed and the developing countries, to their advantage. No wonder, cases relating to SPS and resulting trade restrictions are piling in the Dispute Settlement Board (DSB) of the World Trade Organization. (WTO) The ongoing events call for an urgent need, to harmonize the SPS measures uniformly for all the member nations, which could hope to prevent the misuse of a very essential quality standard.

            The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has taken a multitude of initiatives that pertain to ship safety and prevention of marine pollution, by streamlining the management of ballast water in the cargo ships. The ballast water exchange standard and ballast water performance standard focus on a formal procedure that is uniform and conforming to the IMO.

The ballast water exchange standard focus on transfer of ballast water on a volumetric basis among ships than letting out in the open sea to minimize bioinvasion. The severity of its protection is in the fact that such a transfer should be done at around 200 nautical miles from the nearest coast and 200 meters below the sea water. The ballast water performance standard focuses on the presence of viable organisms in the discharge. The stipulation is less than 10 organisms per cubic meter. Also, such a discharge in the open sea would be permitted only in select areas around the port.

As regards India, we are yet to have a structured and detailed database that provides concise information on our aquatic wealth. There also has not been adequate research done in this area or papers published on the impact of the invasive species in India. Scientific information has always been the primary requisite to fight and prevent any damage that arises out of invasion of alien species. India lacks terribly on this front.

Apart from information, India also falls behind in the technological necessity to conform to the standards laid down by the IMO, with regards to Ballast water management. The cost factor is a prime bottleneck and the ability of the technology to prove its performance within the cost parameters is also crucial for its commercial viability. Some of the present trends witnessed in ballast water management are –

·         Ultraviolet and ultrasound techniques that aim at inactivating the invasive species.

·         Ozone pumping that aim at disinfecting the invasive species, but ozone is corrosive.

·         De-oxygenation of the ballast water.

·         The engine heat is used to sterilize the ballast water; but inconsistent and expensive.

·         Chemical and biocide treatment of the ballast water.

The world nations have adopted only a reactive approach to the issue of bioinvasion till date. Even the discussions pertaining to bioinvasion surfaced only in times of a marked distress call. The research measures undertaken to identify, analyse and undertake preventive and curative steps to bioinvasion has been grossly inadequate. This gains importance in the light of the fact that preventing or eradicating bioinvasion at its infancy is logically appreciative in terms of tangible results and minimizing costs.

            Prevention is found to be better than curbing and cure; and hence is gaining momentum in the international forum of trade talks, propelled by the member countries gaining more scientific and reliable information from various parts of the world on the devastative effects of bioinvasion, due to sheer carelessness and lack of focus in logistics pertaining to international trade among nations.