Ballast Water: Problems and Management

Abstract Harmful species transfers undoubtedly present one of the strongest man-made threats to the aquatic world. For safe operations, vessels essentially depend on ballast water in which they usually carry several species so that each vessel has the potential to transport that species and introduce it to a new area. Species are not present only in the ballast water itself, but are in acompanying sediments and also occur as fouling on the insides of tanks, all representing potential species spread during vessel voyages. In 2004, the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) was adopted to provide globally unified prevention measures. Even when the BWM Convention standards are met, a certain number of organisms is acceptable in the discharge and a range of organisms under 10 μm remained unregulated. Prevention of organism transfer is far from easy, and so the implementation of the BWM Convention remains a challenge.