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Disclaimer The purpose of this publication is to provide a source of information which is additional to that available to the maritime industry from regulatory, advisory, and consultative organisations. Whilst care is taken to ensure the accuracy of any information made available no warranty of accuracy is given and users of that information are to be responsible for satisfying themselves that the information is relevant and suitable for the purposes to which it is applied. In no circumstances whatsoever shall North be liable to any person whatsoever for any loss or damage whensoever or howsoever arising out of or in connection with the supply (including negligent supply) or use of information. Unless the contrary is indicated, all articles are written with reference to English Law. However it should be noted that the content of this publication does not constitute legal advice and should not be construed as such. Members should contact North for specific advice on particular matters
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Red tides
Harmful algal blooms in many areas of the world can cause massive kills of marine life, foul beaches and have a severe impact on tourism and recreation. Some species may contaminate filter feeding shellfish which, if eaten by humans, can cause severe illness and death. As a result many fisheries have closed with significant economic losses.
the control and management of ships ballast water, to minimise the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens. These included minimising the uptake of
organisms during ballasting, cleaning ballast tanks on a regular basis, avoiding unnecessary discharge of ballast and introducing ballast water management procedures. The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO) and classification societies are among those which have published model ballast water management plans, giving practical guidance for implementation of the IMO guidelines. However, progress towards an effective solution on a voluntary basis has been slow so the world summit on sustainable development in 2002 called for an acceleration in the introduction of measures to control invasive marine species in ballast water. By February 2004 the IMO response was adopted and published as the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships Ballast Water and Sediments commonly referred to as the Ballast Water Management Convention, which will be discussed in this briefing.
Asian Kelp
Asian Kelp in southern Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe and Argentina grows and spreads rapidly, displacing native algae and marine life, altering habitats, food webs and ecosystems, and fouling infrastructure and vessels.
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Exchange standards
All ships conducting ballast water exchange will be required, whenever possible, to perform the exchange at least 200 nautical miles from the nearest land and in water at least 200 metres deep. If a ship is unable to conduct ballast water exchange to meet these requirements, it must perform the exchange as far from the nearest land as possible, and in all cases at least 50 nautical miles from the nearest land and in water at least 200 metres deep. When neither of these requirements can be met, port State authorities may designate areas where ships can conduct ballast water exchange. In practice exchange is not achievable in some areas, for example the Baltic Sea.
Date of Construction
January 2009 January 2010 After January 2010* January 2010 - January 2012 After January 2012
*At MEPC 58 discussion on the availability of equipment to meet the compliance dates for vessels constructed during 2010 concluded without the granting of a period of grace. It is now the view that there are sufficient ballast water treatment technologies available to enable the compliance dates to be met.
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The plan will obviously have to be drawn up specifically for each ship, and be written in the working language of the ship with a translation into English, Spanish or French.
Certificates will be issued by the flag State and will be valid up to a maximum of five years, subject to the survey requirements above. A certificate will cease to be valid if there is a change of equipment or if there is a change of flag State.
Entries into the Ballast Water Record Book should include the date, time, volume, location, signature of the officer in charge, whether or not the ballast water management plan was implemented and any other general remarks. The Ballast Water Record Book will have to be kept onboard for a minimum period of two years after the last entry and then in the control of the company for at least another three years. Getting this aspect of the ballast water management system right is vital. There are likely to be parallele with the oily water separator prosecutions in the USA. Many of these prosecutions are not based around actual physical
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Feedback request
In an effort to gather information on the developing situation with regard to ballast water management, North of England encourages contributions from members, correspondents or authorities that provide details of any problems encountered or of any local regulations relating to ballast water management that have been introduced by individual ports or countries. A table in the industry news website includes up to date information on the latest situation. Please click here.
Sequential exchange
This involves emptying the ships ballast water tanks at sea and refilling them with clean ballast water in sequence. In order to comply with the Convention, at least 95% of the ballast water must be exchanged.
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Many Classification societies are actively assisting ship owners in individual risk assessments and operational requirements for ballast exchange on individual ships under various conditions.
Safety
Even if a ship can comply with the location requirements for ballast water exchange some investigations have raised serious concerns for the safety of many existing ship types when using the pump-through or flow-through method. Air pipes are not designed to be exposed to high volumes of water being pumped for prolonged periods. Over-pressure, where tank tops and bulkheads of ballast spaces may suffer abnormal loading from pressures that were not incorporated into the original ship design. Under-pressure, where significant damage may occur when there is a large drop in pressure due to a rapid change in the contents of a tank.
Tank coatings
Another consideration that needs to be taken into account is the effect of increased ballast water exchange on the paint coating of a ships tanks. It is conceivable that if a ship carries out ballast water exchange more frequently, then the tanks will have to be re-coated at more frequent intervals. This could mean more time in dry-dock and increased paint and labour costs.
Over-pressure and under-pressure can and should be considered in new ship design but many existing ships may need strengthening to avoid these problems. When
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Escherichia coli: less than 250 cfu per 100 millilitre. Intestinal Enterococci: less than 100 cfu per 100
millilitre.
Approval
The IMO developed a rigorous approval procedure in order to try to ensure that systems, once approved, would function as intended in the marine environment. The approval process requires extensive testing both ashore and afloat. In addition to the IMOs approval process systems should have type approval from a Flag administration. Any system chosen for installation onboard should be fully type approved, or be recognized as such, by the flag administration of the vessel in question. The number of type approved systems is increasing rapidly as manufacturers seek to get their systems approved.
approval and oversight of prototype ballast water treatment technology programmes governing the use of
the various treatment methods. Systems must also be safe in terms of the ship, its equipment and the crew and any active substances used to treat ballast water must be approved by the IMO. However, approval of the ballast management system actually used on a ship is by the ships flag State.
Choosing a system
The wide choice of systems and their different treatment methods and characteristics can be confusing. When choosing a system Members have many different factors to take into account some of which are discussed below. Choosing the correct system for a vessel is vital and may be particularly problematic on existing vessels.
Treatment standards
The number of viable organisms, discharged from ballast tanks should be reduced to the following levels: Discharge of less than 10 viable organisms per cubic metre greater than or equal to 50 micrometres in minimum dimension. Discharge of less than 10 viable organisms per ml less than 50 micrometres in minimum dimension and
Pumping capacity
The starting point for choosing a system is to look at only those systems that can achieve the pumping rates suitable for the vessels design and trade. Any systems that do not have sufficient pumping capacity need not be considered.
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Safety
The form of treatment could pose a potential risk to the safety of the crew, the ship, or its equipment. The crew will have to receive proper training for the safe operation of the ballast water management system. Any active substances will have to be stored and handled safely. Personal protective equipment may be required, onboard alarms and other associated safety equipment may be required with some systems.
Fleet profile
The same system will not be suitable for every ship even sister ships can have significant differences. As such each ship should be assessed individually to ensure that the system chosen for that ship meets the operational and installation requirements of that vessel.
Energy constraints
Ballast treatment is likely to be carried out at times when peak loading is experienced onboard. It is essential therefore that the energy requirements of each system are assessed against the limited amount of energy that can be produced by a ships generators.
Time constraints
A ballast water management system must be able to comply with the performance standards at the pumping capacity of a ships ballast pumps. If not, there could be significant delays loading and/or discharging cargo which could lead to problems with shippers or receivers and disputes between owners and charterers. Also some systems require time for the active substances to dissipate from the ballast water (e.g. Ozone based systems) and these may not be suitable for vessels engaged on shorter passages.
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Costs
There will be a high capital cost associated with the purchase and installation of the equipment. Purchase and installation costs will vary depending on the type of system chosen and the logistics involved in supplying and fitting the system to the vessel. Running costs will vary between the different systems. Manufacturers should have data available pertaining to the likely cost of treatment per cubic metre of treated ballast water.
strength of the company building the system. These systems are going to be onboard vessels for the next 20 30 years and it is worth examining the apparent strength of manufacturers that are under consideration in order that suitable servicing and the supply of spare parts over the lifetime of the system may be assured.
Reliability
Ballast water management systems have now been trialled and approved aboard working vessels. However, it remains to be seen if the widespread installation and use of such systems will provide the reliability in long term, day-to-day operation that is a vital factor with any shipboard equipment.
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Freshwater ballast
Ships loading at ports in major oil-exporting countries could provide an inexpensive source of freshwater for irrigation and industrial use by carrying freshwater ballast from the discharge ports and pumping it ashore as the cargo is loaded. This would appear to be a viable option
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There is also the option of installing additional equipment to reduce the amount of sediment that is taken onboard with ballast water. Equipment has already been developed which can significantly reduce the amount of sediment. Some ship owners are opting to install equipment on new buildings now because reducing the amount of sediment
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Sampling
Routine sampling may be carried out by the appropriate authorities when a ship visits port to ensure that the ballast water is within the specifications required by the Convention. The IMO Guidelines for Ballast Water Sampling (G2 Guidelines) outline the procedures to be undertaken when sampling for the purpose of determining compliance of water treated by ballast water exchange and treatment. The guidelines recommend that samples be taken via the ballast discharge line, as near to the point of discharge as practicable, for the best representative sample. Samples should also be representative of the whole discharge and not just one tank. Alternatively sampling may be via sounding/air pipes, or manholes, or from pumps. Prior to testing for compliance with the D-2 standard, it is recommended that, as a first step, an indicative analysis of ballast water discharge may be undertaken to establish whether a ship is potentially compliant or non-compliant. This will allow the authorities to take immediate steps to mitigate the potentially harmful effect of ballast discharge whilst further sampling takes place. The Convention also states that time taken for analysing the samples is not to be used as a basis for unduly delaying the operation, movement or departure of the ship. If the sampling leads to results indicating that the ship poses a threat to the environment, human health, property or resources, then the ship will be prohibited from discharging ballast water until the threat is removed. At present introducing a practicable, valid sampling regime is proving something of a hurdle for the authorities as significant amounts of water (tonnes) are required to be sampled. Considerable effort is being directed towards sampling methodology and laboratories in the USA.
Inspection
Ships visiting ports in countries that have ratified the Convention will be subject to inspections to ensure that proper ballast water management is taking place. Any ship which is required to comply with the Convention can be subject to an inspection. Any inspection should initially be limited to confirming the ship has a valid Convention certificate inspecting the Ballast Water Record Book sampling the ships ballast water.
Interpretation
One of the major concerns about the introduction of the Ballast Water Management Convention is that it may be interpreted, applied and enforced differently between jurisdictions. The key to the success of IMO conventions has been that member states have interpreted, applied
However, a routine inspection may become a detailed inspection if a ship does not have a valid certificate or there are clear grounds for believing that the condition of the ship or its equipment does not correspond with its certificate, or the master or crew are not familiar with the ballast water management plan, or have not implemented
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What Next?
Although the 2016 deadline appears to be a long way off Members would be prudent to begin preparations for the identification and installation of suitable equipment on their vessels immediately, if they have not already done so. Planning a phased installation across a fleet will enable the cost to be spread over several years and ensure that Members technical department is not faced with a capital intensive, time constrained, project in the run up to the implementation date. Depending on the outcome of the latest consultation process in the USA it may be that new vessels trading to USA will have to comply with the treatment standard as early as 2012. An industry news item will be posted on our website when the results of the consultation process in the USA are known. Below is appended a list of approvals granted by IMO to August 2011.
Detention
The Convention does stipulate that all possible efforts shall be made to avoid a ship being unduly detained or delayed and that, when a ship is unduly detained or delayed, it should be entitled to compensation for any loss or damage suffered. Unfortunately the Convention does not define what constitutes an undue detention or delay and this may very much depend upon the view of the local authorities that detained the ship and from which the ship would probably be seeking compensation. Ships could potentially encounter problems if they berth on arrival and the local authorities attend to carry out a normal inspection and take samples. As mentioned above, time for analysing samples is not to be used as a basis for unduly delaying the operation, movement or departure of the ship. But, if the initial analysis results indicate that the ship poses a threat, then the authorities will prohibit the ship from discharging ballast water until the threat is removed. In this case the ship will have no option but to wait for the full analysis results before they can start cargo or ballast operations. In a case where a ship is permitted to start cargo or ballast operations, but at a later date the analysis results are obtained and indicate that the ballast water does pose a threat, sanctions could be imposed against the ship.
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