| |
IMO regulations require ballast water treatment
“Stowaways” in ballast water – an international problem
Almost 90% of the commodities traded worldwide are transported by ship, and that figure is steadily rising. Ballast water tanks give vessels stability and the necessary draught required for cost-effective operations. Ballast tanks are filled with sea water, fresh water and a mixture of the two, pumped in from the world's oceans and discharged again as required. Every year, around 12 billion tons of ballast water are used, water that contains countless “stowaways”. Every time a ship takes in ballast water, it also involuntarily takes in masses of tiny aquatic organisms and distributes these on the world's waterways. Although a large proportion of the microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses, do not survive being transferred in the ballast tanks, a sufficiently large number of organisms are released when the ballast tanks are emptied. Once these invasive species (fish, small invertebrates, worms, bacteria, viruses and other microbes) settle in their new habitat, they can potentially cause considerable ecological and economic damage. In extreme cases, they can become a hazard for humans.
IMO regulations demand ballast water treatment
In order to halt the unintentional spread of organisms through ballast water, the International Marine Organization (IMO) is establishing a convention which will in future regulate how ballast water is treated. The “International Convention for the Control and Management of Ship's Ballast Water and Sediments” will be legally binding from 2009, and from 2016 for new vessels. After a period of transition, during which the D1 and D2 regulations will apply, the convention will become compulsory for all international ocean-going vessels. The interim regulations are the D1 Ballast Water Exchange Standard and the D2 Ballast Water Performance Standard. The D1 standard, which depends on the ships' ballast water capacity and when the keel was laid, will eventually expire and only the D2 standard will apply. To ensure compliance with the convention, the entire global fleet will gradually be fitted or retrofitted with ballast water treatment systems.
Links:
|
|
