Less risks for invasive species in the Baltic Sea

18 March 2013 (HELCOM Information Services) – Innovative, regionally harmonised methods for information collection and risk assessments on invasive species in the Baltic Sea have been presented in a recent final report of the HELCOM’s ALIENS 2 Project. The report helps to put in place a joint regional system of exemptions from ballast water treatment requirements, and thus helps the Baltic coastal countries to implement the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC) in an effective way as soon as it enters into force.   

“All Baltic Sea countries agreed to the HELCOM Ballast Water Road Map in 2007, and with it committed to ratify the International Ballast Water Convention by 2013, which will be a crucial step in reducing the transport of non-native species to the Baltic Sea. After a slow start the ratifications are picking up, last September Denmark ratified the Convention, following Russia who acceded in March 2012 and Sweden who ratified in 2009. However, the ratification is only the first step and leads to a challenging process of implementation,“ says Hermanni Backer, Professional Secretary of MARITIME and RESPONSE in HELCOM.  

Management of ships’ ballast water is required by the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention, in order to prevent harmful non-native species spreading to the vulnerable waters of the Baltic. However, the Convention also enables exemptions from these requirements for specified routes and ships, if a risk assessment indicates negligible risk. A transparent, regionally harmonised Baltic Sea procedure needs to be put in place in order to ensure that such exemptions are not granted in ways which would undermine the aims of the Convention.

The recently completed HELCOM Project, Pilot risk assessments of alien species transfer on intra-Baltic ship voyages (ALIENS 2) focused on establishing a protocol to be used in collecting information from ports for conducting reliable risk assessments; on defining the harmonised criteria for selection of target species to be used in the risk assessment; and on creating a decision support tool and database needed to perform the risk assessments in a transparent, uniform manner. The Project builds on HELCOM Guidance on risk assessment adopted by all the HELCOM countries in 2010, as well as the results of the HELCOM ALIENS project finalised in 2011.

The HELCOM Ministerial Meeting in October this year will be an excellent opportunity to report further regional ratifications of the BWMC, but also to  to put in place measures, including those proposed by the project, needed for proper implementation of the Convention in the region.

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Background

Maritime transportation in the Baltic Sea region has steadily increased during the past decade. On the average, 2,000 ships are at sea every day and by 2017 maritime transport of goods in the region has been estimated to double. Transport and introductions of non-native species has been perceived as one of the primary threats to the coastal ecosystems worldwide and ships’ ballast water has been identified as one of the main vectors.

Due to increase in shipping, ever increasing number of non-native species is arriving into the Baltic Sea. The invaders can induce considerable changes in the structure and dynamics of marine ecosystems and cause adverse impacts on the economy or even represent risks to human health. Over 120 non-native aquatic species have been recorded in the Baltic Sea to date, and around 80 of these have settled.

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The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU, working to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution. HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area", known as the Helsinki Convention.

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For further information, please contact:

Riikka Puntila (Ms.)
Project Researcher
HELCOM Secretariat
Phone: +358 46 8509211
E-mail: riikka.puntila@helcom.fi
Skype: helcom45

Hermanni Backer (Mr.)
Professional Secretary (MARITIME & RESPONSE)
HELCOM Secretariat
Phone: +358 468 509199
E-mail: hermanni.backer@helcom.fi
Skype: helcom02