- Officer and crew training
This section provides information needed to ensure that appropriate crew and officer training can be carried out before starting a journey. The following points should be familiar to all personnel responsible for the BWE operation:
- The ship’s pumping system in detail, including all arrangements of air and overflow pipes for coordination of the crew working on deck, the pumps involved;
- Air pipe heads are not to be used for BWE purposes unless specifically type approved
- Functional design of air pipe heads approved for the flow-through BWE method and of overflow pipes (bypass arrangement, blockage of air/overflow pipes, freezing or unintentional closure should be kept under surveillance);
- Knowledge of expected time spans for ballast water exchange at sea (this requires knowledge of the ships’ operational plan, the routing and the time schedule for passages and ports)
- Different methods of ballast water exchange, the risks involved and possible consequences for the ships’ stability and strength and the advantages of each method, the possibility of using treatment alternatives or ballast water retention.
- Ballast pump capacity restrictions, if any.
- Procedures for recording, sampling and sounding to provide a proper record as required in the regulations.
- Procedures for safe entry into ballast water tanks for control or sediment removal.
- Free surface effects and sloshing loads in slack tanks
This section informs the responsible personnel for BWE about the negative influence of the free surface effect. It should explicitly inform about the tanks or tank pairs with the greatest free surface moments and should include information about possible measures to reduce the negative effect such as selection of suitable BWE method and retention on board.
The sections has to include safety warnings on ballast water transfer or exchange operations, which can generate significant structural loads by sloshing action in partially filled tanks. If operations include partially filled tanks, consideration should be given to carrying out the operation in favourable sea conditions such that the risk of structural damage is minimized.
