1oo Stories

To help stop invasive species from hitching rides in ships’ ballast water and damaging local ecosystems, scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science created a one-of-a-kind floating lab—a 155-foot barge that can travel around the Chesapeake Bay testing new treatment technologies. This mobile lab, part of the Maritime Environmental Resource Center (MERC), is the first in the U.S. to be officially approved by the Coast Guard for testing whether these systems actually work before they’re installed on ships. Backed by federal and state partners, MERC’s work is helping make the shipping industry cleaner and greener—not just by tackling invasive species, but also by looking into cleaner fuels, cutting air pollution, and reducing waste from vessels.