Leading scientific experts engaged in the fight against alien species transported in ships’ ballast water will come together in January 2010 at the World Maritime University (WMU) in Sweden,

in a week-long series of ballast water management-related meetings. The
event will be jointly organized by the GloBallast Partnerships
Programme (funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and IMO), IMO’s Global Industry
Alliance for Marine Biosecurity (GIA) and WMU.

An estimated 10
billion tonnes of ballast water, often containing marine animal and
plant species, are carried around the globe each year in ships. As a
result, a serious environmental threat has developed, caused by the
introduction of alien aquatic plants and animals to new ecosystems that
may not be able to deal with the imported species. It is estimated that
more than 7,000 species of plants and animals are transferred daily. As
well as the environmental harm, the damage done by these alien species
is costing the world massive sums of money.

The first Global
Research and Development (R&D) Forum on Emerging Ballast Water
Management Systems will bring together maritime industry, academia and
technology development leaders in the field of ships’ ballast water
management for a comprehensive overview of this rapidly expanding area
of research and development and technology commercialization. The Forum
will be held at WMU, in Malm?, Sweden, from 27 to 29 January 2010.

Earlier,
on 24-25 January, the first Global Expert Forum on Ballast Water
Treatment Test Facility Harmonization will bring together all the major
ballast water treatment test facility operators to discuss the latest
in technology-testing approaches and the need for harmonization. This
represents a proactive effort, by IMO, to establish efficient and
comparable systems testing as part of the approval process for ballast
water management systems, under the

International Convention for
the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM
Convention), which was adopted by the Organization in 2004.

The
BWM convention aims to prevent the potentially devastating effects of
the spread of harmful aquatic organisms carried by ships’ ballast water
by requiring ships to implement a Ballast Water and Sediments
Management Plan and carry out ballast water management procedures to a
given standard. Although the convention has not yet entered into
force1, a number of ballast water management systems which meet the
standards set out in the convention have already been approved by
national Administrations. Comprehensive guidelines on the approval
process for such systems have been adopted by IMO.

The two global
fora are the first such international events supported by IMO’s GIA ,
an innovative public-private sector partnership established under the
umbrella of the GloBallast Partnerships Programme. The GIA currently
comprises four founding members (APL, BP Shipping, Daewoo Shipbuilding
& Marine Engineering, and Vela Marine International).

“The
Global Industry Alliance is a way for the shipping industry to join
hands in removing some of the barriers preventing us from fulfilling
our responsibilities under the Ballast Water Management Convention”
said Captain Tey Yoh Huat, Vice President, Technical Services, APL and
Chair of the GIA Industry Task Force.

“We all have the same goal:
to make sure that the shipping industry can continue providing the
high-quality services expected, with minimal impact on the marine
environment. As the week of meetings in Malm? will illustrate, the GIA
can play a crucial, catalytic role in this process,” he said.

During
that week, WMU will also host a workshop (on 26 January 2010) to
discuss the outcomes of a major study, sponsored by the GIA, that
provides a first review of the scientific basis for establishing
environmental equivalency between traditional treatment systems, such
as those using mechanical, physical and chemical treatment of ballast
water, and emerging alternative concepts. The development of guidelines
for establishing such equivalency is expected to remove the last
barriers against new and innovative ideas coming to the market to
complement current treatment-based technologies.

Additionally, WMU
will host, on 29-30 January, the European Union-supported Ballast Water
Opportunity project’s first annual conference. WMU is one of the
leading partners in the project and the GloBallast Partnerships
Programme is an affiliated partner.

“This year’s ballast water
R&D Forum is particularly timely, as advances in basic and applied
research in this field are rapidly bringing new, innovative ideas in
ballast water management closer to the market.” said Forum Co-Chair Dr.
Olof Lind?n, Professor of Marine Environment Management at WMU. “In
addition to the exponential growth in R&D activities related to
ballast water management, we are also seeing increased interest from
the business and venture capital sectors seeking to turn the results of
that research to real-world uses.”

The potential market for
ballast water technologies is huge, with some 60,000 merchant ships of
over 400 gross tonnage engaged in international trade.

R&D Forum information

The
R&D Forum at WMU will cover topics related to regulatory and
technical aspects of emerging ballast water management concepts;
progress on conventional treatment technologies; progress in testing;
verification and monitoring of ballast water; and perspectives from the
maritime industry; operational experiences and, notably, experience
from IMO’s technology-approval procedures covering more than 35
technologies.

Keynote speakers from IMO, academia and the R&D
community will be addressing the Forum, including Mr. Dandu Pughiuc
(Head, Biosafety Section, IMO), Professor Michael Parsons (University
of Michigan), Dr. Tim Bowmer (Chairman of GESAMP), Captain Graham
Greensmith (Lloyd’s Register), Captain Tey Yoh Huat (Chairman of the
GIA Industry Task Force), Dr. Marcel Veldhuis (Royal Netherlands
Institute for Sea Research) and Mr. Iver Iversen (Wilhelmsen Ships
Equipment AS).

The Organizers

The World Maritime University
(WMU) was established in 1983 by the International Maritime
Organization, a United Nations specialized agency. Its mission is to
serve the global maritime community as a centre of excellence and IMO’s
apex institution for high-level maritime education and research. The
GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Partnerships Programme aims to assist countries
to reduce the risk of aquatic bio-invasions mediated by ships’ ballast
water and sediments. The Global Industry Alliance (GIA) is an
innovative public-private sector partnership between the GloBallast
Partnership Programme and leading maritime companies. Current partners
include APL, BP Shipping, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering,
and Vela Marine International. The GIA has been created to catalyze
innovation and change in the field of ballast water management, while
providing business benefits for the industry. Ballast Water Opportunity
is a project of the North Sea Region (NSR) Programme of the European
Regional Development Fund aiming to support NSR industries to enter the
market for innovative products.

Source: IMO

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