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Invited Talk
Forging Global Alliances for Marine Biosafety through GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Partnerships Programme
Jose Matheickal*
International Maritime Organization, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR, UK
*Email: jmatheic@imo.org
Capacity building and policy, legal and institutional reforms remain to be key hurdles in managing marine bioinvasions in several developing regions. The second phase of the GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Programme, titled GloBallast Partnerships, will aim to remove these barriers by forging strategic alliances at global, regional and national levels and working very closely with IMO Member States and various other stakeholders from public and private sectors. GloBallast Partnerships will assist especially vulnerable developing countries to reduce the risk of aquatic bio-invasions mediated by ships’ ballast water and sediments and will expand and build on a successfully completed GEF-UNDP-IMO pilot project (GloBallast Project) during 2000-2004. With the help of tools and expertise developed and lessons learned from the pilot project, the new project will expand government and port management capacities, instigate legal, policy and institutional reforms at the country level, develop mechanisms for sustainability, and drive global/regional coordination and cooperation. The project will also spur global efforts to design and test technology solutions, and will enhance global knowledge management and marine electronic communications to better manage the issue. The partnership effort is three-tiered, involving global, regional and country-specific partners, representing government, industry and non-governmental organisations. Private sector participation will be achieved through establishing a Globallast Industry Alliance for Marine Biosafety (GIA) with partners from major maritime companies. All told, more than 70 countries in 14 regions across the globe will participate in the project, including the six pilot countries whose expertise and capacities will be drawn on for this global partnership effort. The presentation will cover the salient features of the project and highlight the key role the project will play in accelerating the implementation of the Ballast Water Management Convention.
Keywords: Ballast water, Marine Biosafety, GloBallast Partnerships, Global Industry Alliance, IMO, Ballast Water Management Convention
Denmark and the BWM Convention
Haastrup Niels*, Steenfeldt T
SIMAC, Graaesbej 27, DK-5700-Svendborg, The Netherlands
*E-mail: nkh@simac.dk
The problem in DKExtend:`Danish waters have recently experienced a wide spread introduction of the Mnemiopsis leidyi. Within 2007 the Mnemiopsis have spread throughout Danish inner waters and is regarded a potential hazard. Apart from the Mnemiopsis, Danish waters have seen the introduction of many species including Ensis americanus, which is distributed widely along the Danish west coast (towards the North Sea).
Measures: What requirements does the DK government have prior to recognition?
The Danish government require a full investigation into the questions:
Is there a problem?
Can the problem, if any, be solved by measures stated in the international convention?
Cost/benefit?What are the resources to establish facts?
According to government officials two to three persons are working part time with this matter and they do not have sufficient resources nor knowledge to answer the questions stated above. Therefore sufficient knowledge is not readily available to the environmental department to recommend ratification of the convention.
Future: What can be done in the future?
First of all this problem suffers from complete lack of interest and attention in Danish government and public.
Future progress therefore depends on two things:
- Increased focus by government and NGO’s
- More resourced dedicated research into this area.
- Work progressively for a joint ratification by all EU member states.
The shipping industry needs to focus more on this matter. Most ship owners await governmental initiatives – or have just never heard of the convention and relevant technologies at all.
Keywords: Bioinvasion in Denmark, Government approach, Future steps toward ratification
Ballast water risk scenario for Mormugao Port, India
Sawant SS*, AC Anil, K Venkat
National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, India
*E-mail: sawant@nio.org
The introduction of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens to new environments via ships’ ballast water (BW) and other vectors has been identified as one of the four greatest threats to the worlds’ oceans. The issue can be addressed by implementing various management options. One of the management options is to conduct port specific ballast water risk assessment, which is a semi-quantitative approach. The method deals with collation of data from Ballast Water Reporting Forms (BWRFs) to identify the source ports from which BW is imported. A multivariate procedure is then used to determine the relative environmental similarity between the receiving port and each of its BW source and destination ports. Comparing port-to-port environmental similarities provides a relative measure of the risk of organism survival, establishment and potential spread. The various BW discharges, environmental matching and risk species data are then processed with other risk factors, including voyage duration and tank size, to provide a preliminary relative overall risk posed by each BW source port.
Information from 1173 BWRFs, collected from February, 2001 to October, 2006 by the Mormugao port (MPT) authority, was utilized for the exercise. Out of these, 766 BWRF were considered valid and taken up for risk analyses. The split-up of ship types visiting MPT suggested maximum visits by Bulk Carriers (79%). There were 245 trading ports, out of which, 143 were source ports and 102 destination ports. The maximum ballast discharged by any ship was 64,350 tonnes. A country wise ballast water discharge indicates highest by Japan (25%). The other major contributors were China, Korea, Pakistan and Persian Gulf (together >35%). The presentation provides an overview of the risk analyses at MPT, taking into consideration the proportion of all discharges (BW discharge frequency), proportion of total discharged volume and environmental similarity coefficient.
Keywords: Ballast water, Ballast water reporting forms, Risk assessment, Environmental similarities, Mormugao Port, Ballast water discharge
Invited Talk
Implication of ship bio-fouling and ballast water management on shipping operations and economics
Ajoy Chatterjee*
Chief Surveyor with the Govt. of India, D. G. Shipping, Mumbai, India
*E-mail: cs@dgshipping.com
Marine bio-invasions have been identified as a major global environmental and economic problem with several thousand species estimated to be in the ballast tanks of the world's shipping at any one time. The ‘Atlantic box jelly’, believed to have been released in a ship's ballast water, helped wipe out life in the Black Sea. In San Francisco Bay, a new foreign species takes hold every 14 weeks, scientists warn.
A significant milestone for the protection of the marine environment was reached by IMO in adopting the Ships’ Ballast Water Management Convention in February 2004. One of the major environmental concerns linked with shipping is the control of ballast water to prevent the transfer of harmful marine organisms around the world. Ballast water is an essential feature of safe ship operation for many vessels. In developing guidelines for the environmentally sound control of ballast water discharges, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) recognises the need to maintain safety of vessels and on-board practices.
Hull fouling may also be a vector for introduction of exotic species. Ships traditionally used TBT paints as a means of controlling the growth of exotic organisms on hulls, both to improve fuel efficiency and control the introduction of exotic species. Scientific studies showed that certain antifouling systems, specifically the Tributyltin (TBT) based anti-fouling paints, pose a substantial risk of toxicity and may have significant chronic impacts at the species habitat and ecosystem levels. The IMO responded to this serious marine environmental issue by ratifying the Anti-fouling Convention (AFS) which is aimed at protecting the marine environment and human health from adverse affects of antifouling systems on ships by phasing out the use of harmful organotin compounds as biocides in antifouling paints and by establishing a mechanism to prevent the potential future use of other harmful substances in anti-fouling systems. Since the AFS Convention will now enter into force on 17 September 2008, the international shipping industry is examining alternative anti-fouling treatments or systems that will be as effective and economically viable.
In the twin aspirations to improve the ‘green’ profile of ship operations and limit the consequential growth of fuel and maintenance costs, it is necessary to examine the economic viability of controlling translocation of invasive aquatic species by ships ballast water and by fouling of ships’ hull in view of unavailability of suitable shipboard ballast water treatment systems. Similarly, consequent to the ban of TBT paints, we need to consider the economic impact of ship operations due to spiralling costs of aluminium and zinc based anticorrosive primers, epoxy based hull coatings and biocidal antifoulings containing copper to prevent fouling growth.
Keywords: Marine bioinvasion, IMO, Ballast water, Hull fouling, TBT, Anti-fouling Convention, Economic impact
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