Bio-Invasion and Onshore Ballast Water Management: A Viable Solution for Developing Economies

Abstract

The arrival of aquatic exotic species in a new area increases with proximity to seaports, thereby raising bio-security concerns for our seaports and coastal environments. Protecting our national borders against these possible biological invaders arising from the discharge of planktons found in ships ballast water could be a very difficult undertaking. This is because the environmental and socioeconomic costs associated with these invaders are the unintended and unavoidable side effects or externalities of the shipping trade. There are two motivations for this paper. The first is the concern raised at the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) 67 and 68 meetings of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regarding the capacity of some type-approved Ballast Water Management (BWM) Systems to meet the performance standard (D-2) required in the BWM Convention at-all-times and in all conditions. The second is based on the reluctance expressed by some ship-owners to install the BWM System on-board their ships as suggested by a Lloyd's List survey. In an attempt to address the aforementioned concerns, a holistic view of ballast water management encompassing design, regulatory compliance and the associated ergonomics of BWM Systems operation were reviewed with respect to some peer reviewed research work done by the author. The outcome revealed a preference for onshore BWM as against the predominantly globally accepted shipboard management. An exemption concept for ships was subsequently proposed in this paper to optimize onshore application of BWM, especially for developing countries.