What germs are we shipping around? Carrie Straight 05.03.01 Ships load up with ballast water placed in special tanks when they leave port. This water helps keep the ship stable while travelling in the ocean. When getting to their destination, these ships dump out the water in the ballast tanks. Dumping this water from other places has caused problems by introducing ocean dwelling animals and fishes into new countries or continents. A group of scientists wanted to find out how many microorganisms were in ballast tanks that arrived in the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. They were especially concerned the number of microorganisms that cause disease (germs or pathogens). The scientists took samples of water from tanks and looked at the water under microscopes to see what kinds and how many microorganisms were swimming around in the water. The scientists discovered that ballast water was an easy way for germs to hitch a ride to new places. They inferred that large numbers of new germs are dumped into ports every year. Ruiz, Gregory M., Tonya K. Rawlings, Fred C. Dobbs, Lisa A. Drake, Timothy Mullady, Anwarul Huq, and Rita R. Colwell. 2000. Global spread of microorganisms by ships. Nature 408: 49. ©2001 The Aurora Collection, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Site Development by: Interactive Multimedia. Inc.