Ballast Water Management

The correct definition of ballast water management is to:

Deal with treatment defined as a process or mechanical, physical, chemical or biological method to kill, remove or render infertile, harmful or potentially harmful organisms within ballast water. Ballast water management involves precautionary water uptake practices and either mid ocean exchange.

Let me give you an example. Everyday various marine species are being carried around the world. When they are discharged into new environments, they may become invasive and severely disrupt the native ecology, impact economic activities such as fisheries and cause disease and even death in humans.

So, how do we solve this problem? It’s a difficult question. But the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Resolution A.868 (20) helps us. It requires:

1. All officers and crew involved in ballast water management to receive proper training.
2. All ships to minimize the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens.
3. All ships to develop and follow a ballast water management plan
4. All ships to record all ballast operations

In addition, we have some techniques which are  used to minimize those impacts. The Ballast water exchange is currently considered the single most practical method for ballast water management. It can be accomplished by either the sequential empty-refill method or by overflow method. It has been reported that these methods are about 95% effective in eliminating aquatic organisms. Ballast Water Exchange operations should be performed in deep water away from coastal shelves and estuarine influences.

Overflow Method

To sum up many methods are being developed to minimize the risks of ballast exchange. These new methods are based in treat ballast water by filters and ultraviolet capsules.

Hiago Gaspar de Freitas