What next for ballast water management regulation?
What next for ballast water management regulation? Protecting marine ecosystems from potentially harmful invasive aquatic species transported in ships’ ballast water is an important part of IMO’s work to protect the marine environment. The treaty supporting this is the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention, which requires ships in international traffic to manage their ballast water and sediments to a certain standard, according to a ship-specific ballast water management plan. But for regulation to be effective, it needs to be clearly understood by all stakeholders involved. To support this process, IMO’s Theofanis Karayannis has updated ballast water professionals, shipowners and other stakeholders meeting at the BWMTech London Conference (12 December) on recent regulatory developments. Specifically, he outlined the key decisions from the latest session of IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee ( MEPC 71 ) related to implementing the BWM C...