Introduction - Global Maritime Transport and Ballast Water Management: Issues and Solutions - page 1

Introduction

Matej David and Stephan Gollasch

Abstract Today global shipping transports over 90 % of the world's overseas trade
and trends anticipate that it will continue to play an increasing role world-wide.
Shipping operations inevitably include also pressures on natural environments. The
most recent waterborne threat is the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and
pathogens with ballast water and sediments releases, which may result in harmful
effects on the natural environment, human health, property and resources globally.
The signifi cance of the ballast water issue was already addressed in 1973 by the
International Maritime Organization (IMO) as the United Nations specialised
agency for the regulation of international maritime transport at the global scale.
Committed work by many experts, scientists, politicians, IGOs and NGOs at IMO
resulted in the adoption if the International Convention for the Control and
Management of Ships ' Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) in February
2004, which is now to be ratifi ed and implemented. Work on ballast water manage-
ment issues has also shown to be very complex, hence there are no simple solutions.
Nevertheless, the BWM Convention represents a globally uniform framework for
the implementation of ballast water management measures, and different support-
ing tools like risk assessment and decision support systems have been developed to
support its effi ciency. In this chapter the reader is introduced to various ballast water
issues and responses to it. The intention of this topic and the overview of its content
is also presented.

Keywords Vessels ￿ Ballast water ￿ Ballast water management ￿ Harmful aquatic
organisms and pathogens ￿ International maritime organization ￿ Ballast water man-
agement convention ￿ Risk assessment ￿ Decision support system