International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments
Ballast Water Management “means mechanical, physical, chemical, and biological processes, either singularly or in combination, to remove, render harmless, or avoid the uptake or discharge of Harmful Aquatic Organisms and Pathogens within Ballast Water and Sediments.
Adoption: 13 February 2004
Entry into force: 12 months after ratification by 30 States, representing 35 per cent of world merchant shipping tonnage.
The Convention is divided into Articles; and an Annex which includes technical standards and requirements in the Regulations for the control and management of ships’ ballast water and sediments.
Shipping moves over 80% of the world’s commodities and transfers approximately three to five billion tonnes of ballast water internationally every year. Ballast water is essential to the safe and efficient operation of shipping, but it also poses a serious ecological, economic and health threat through the transfer of invasive aquatic species inadvertently carried in it.
Ballast water contains a variety of organisms including bacteria and viruses and the adult and larval stages of the many marine and coastal plants and animals. While the vast majority of such organisms will not survive to the point when the ballast is discharged, some may survive and thrive in their new environment. These ‘non-native species’, if they become established, can have a serious ecological, economic and public health impact on the receiving environment.
