NEWARK — IN the rising light of a mid-September morning, the CSAV Pyrenees, a blue-water freighter sailing out of Suape Port in Brazil, was lashed to its lines at Berth 59 of the Port Newark Container Terminal.
Shrimp boats ply its waters, freighters line up at its port and promises of easy evenings underneath a palm tree have long attracted tourists from as far as California.
Marine species are taken in with ballast water on freighters and wreak havoc in new locations, driving natives to extinction.
The green-and-white ferries chug through roiling waters, dodging freighters, cruise ships, junks, even sampans.
The House of Representatives is considering legislation aimed at tightening controls on the ballast water that stabilizes freighters when they are not full.
All three species hitchhiked to the Great Lakes from the Black and Caspian Seas in the ballast water of international freighters -- the mussels in the past decade or so, the goby in just the past four years.
The low water has forced freighters that haul iron ore, steel, limestone and other raw materials to lighten their loads and change their routes to avoid running aground in shallow harbors and waterways.
There is similar good news on the invasive species front as steps have been taken to end the chief path of introduction of aquatic aliens in the ballast water tanks of freighters moving between the lakes.
Mode(s) of Introduction: The round goby was most likely transported from its native habitat in the Black or Caspian Sea to the Great Lakes in the ballast water of an oceangoing freighter.
The storm caused the loss of 1,799 bags of sorghum from water damage when a freighter encountered Josephine en route to Baltimore, Maryland.
Seok, 58, reportedly provided his captors false information about the chemical freighter, mixed water with engine oil and, along with the ship's chief engineer, sabotaged the rudder and other vital systems.
