An article by the Riviera Maritime Media on the 'best available science' for rendering non-viable organisms in ballast water gets the expert opinion of MLML's biological oceanographer, Dr. Nick Welschmeyer. Dr. Welschmeyer’s lab utilizes techniques/instrumentation fundamental to the understanding of growth and physiology of marine plankton such as radioisotope tracers, metabolic assays, culture incubations, microscopy and flow cytometry. As a result, the lab's research helps direct ballast water treatment protocols.