INNOVATE WAYS SOUGHT TO COMBAT AQUATIC PEST IN SHIP BALLAST

INNOVATE WAYS SOUGHT TO COMBAT AQUATIC PEST IN SHIP BALLAST    The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program and the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service are requesting proposals from the private sector to help find innovative ways to prevent the spread of aquatic pests found in ship ballast.
   In fiscal 2001, Sea Grant and Fish and Wildlife expect to make available $1.2 million toward proposed projects to improve ballast water treatmentand management in the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes. Proposals are due to the Sea Grant office in Silver Spring, Md., by no later than 5 p.m. July 24.
   The most destructive aquatic pest linked to ballast water in recent years has been the zebra mussel, but the government said others are also present in U.S. waters.
   The government stepped up its efforts to combat nonindigenous aquatic pests in 1990 when it implemented the Nonindigenous Acquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act and again in 1996 with the National Invasive Species Act.