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Stronger Joint Approaches to
Ballast Water Management
The unyielding efforts related to appropriate and efficient ballast water management in the Baltic Sea took another important step with the first meeting of the Joint HELCOM/OSPAR task group on Ballast Water Convention Exemptions was held on 11-12 October 2012 in Sweden.
The task force meeting took the first steps in developing a common framework on the specific issue of exemptions for both the Baltic Sea (managed by HELCOM) and the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) regions.
The transport and introduction of alien species has been perceived as one of the primary threats to coastal ecosystems worldwide. The better management of ships’ ballast water will reduce the risk of such harmful organisms entering into sea areas.
A need for regional approaches to exemptions for the Ballast Water Management Convention from 2004 has emerged, since the convention enables the exemption for certain oceanic voyages which can be shown to pose only a negligible risk of the transfer of harmful alien species. However, the methods for assessing whether a ship does not have to treat or exchange ballast water should be commonly agreed to avoid undermining the confidence of the BWM Convention implementation process.
The joint efforts in the Baltic Sea and in the North-East Atlantic by HELCOM and OSPAR, respectively, are needed as the two organizations share many member countries and because there is a high level of interdependency between the two regions in terms of traffic links. A Baltic Sea starting point for this joint work is a guideline document to exemptions, adopted as part of the 2010 HELCOM Ministerial Meeting in Moscow, as well as the output of the ongoing HELCOM ALIENS 2 project to be finalized in November 2012. In addition to the member countries, the shipping industry has also shown great interest in the process.
All Baltic Sea countries have signed the HELCOM Ballast Water Road Map, agreeing to ratify the ballast water convention by 2013 at the latest. Just last month, Denmark ratified the convention, following Russia who acceded in March this year and Sweden who ratified in 2009. The HELCOM Ministerial Meeting in October next year will be an excellent opportunity to evaluate the implementation of this commitment and discuss any further measures, if needed.
