ODU'S DOBBS TO APPEAR ON "WITH GOOD REASON"

Fred Dobbs, professor of oceanography at Old Dominion University and an expert on the ecology of microorganisms in ships' ballast water, is a guest on the statewide radio program "With Good Reason" the week of April 28-May 4.

In southeastern Virginia, the program will be broadcast by WHRV-89.5 F.M. at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 3. The program also can be heard via the Internet by visiting the Hampton Roads public broadcasting family of Web sites at WHRO.org.

At withgoodreasonradio.org, the program will be available in the future within the site's archives. "With Good Reason" is produced for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is broadcast in partnership with public radio stations in Virginia and Washington, D. C.

In his interview, Dobbs discusses a virus that may have been transported into the Great Lakes in the ballast water of ships. The virus is suspected of causing fish to bleed to death. The ODU professor says more stringent measures regulating the dumping of ballast water may be needed.

Dobbs has done research and authored scholarly papers about biological invasions and potential invasions from the dumping of ballast water into the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes. He also has worked with engineers at ODU toward the development of on-board treatment processes that would kill or vastly reduce the number of microorganisms in ballast water.