**2. The research methods and methodology**

In order to avoid a superficial discussion of the concerns around the dangers of discharging untreated ballast water into the seas as a result of international trade or other maritime-related activity, it is essential to discuss the strategy for collecting data for an analysis used in this paper. This will assist the reader to determine the reliability and validity of the findings and observations in this paper. Before discussing the strategy, it is important to note that the research question to be answered in this paper may be couched as follows, 'Following the IMO treaty of Ballast Water Management, the BWM 2004 [14], which methods have actually been considered successful and with the success of those methods, which of them can be considered as new developments that solve problems around ballast water management?' Coupled with this question is, "What are some of the actual problems associated with ballast water management especially in sensitive ecosystems such as the Arctic, Antarctic and ancient traditional trading routes such as the Mediterranean Sea, as examples to sample ballast water management concerns as well as strategies?"

To answer these questions a combination of qualitative as well as quantitative methods have been employed in this research for data collection and analysis. Apart from the author's survey which was directed at various companies that deal with ballast water development tools to determine the attitude and preparedness to comply with the new compliance standards of the BWM, 2004, the data studies in this paper to answer these questions took the form of observational, experimental literature reviews as secondary data of experts in the field. For example, in the excellent research experiment conducted by Rosenhaim et al. [11] a study of movements of ships during various seasons and how it affects the accumulation of environmentally threatening discharges of ballast water is relied on to study, analyze and problem solve in the Arctic region. Similar research methods are employed in this paper.

In order to study industry attitude and preparedness for compliance with the BWM, 2004 standards and the moral sensitivity to the seriousness of ballast water threats, the author created a survey that contained seven multiple choice questions with a Likert scale response [15], with an 8th open-ended question asking maritime industry and developers or users of ballast water technologies if they had any comments about the ballast water regulations that were about to come into force as international law. Participants were given at least 5 minutes to answer the surveys anonymously. A hundred surveys were sent to various companies and a maximum of 20 surveys were completed. All returned surveys were considered to sample industry attitudes and preparedness [16]. The surveys represent those who have been following the alarming problem of untreated ballast water discharges from ships and have a direct interest in the developments and technologies to deal with the problem.

The theoretical positioning of this research paper shows the true power of collaborative data production and interdisciplinary engagement to solve environmental concerns and problem sets. Although some of the literature review is secondary in

nature, it is provided by those who have strong sound paradigms and compelling experimental results. Although the limitations of relying on secondary sources of data may be a reality, secondary sound data is far better that no data at all and it forms a powerful tool in making arguments such as the necessity of monitoring the data, if it exists for successful compliance with the ballast water management regulations which are now fully enforceable international law. The process and steps for data collection and analysis in this paper are logical, justifiable, and allow the questions raised above to be answered reasonably or raise further relevant questions that will lead to better future solutions.
