Ballast Water Management Treaty Ratifications Boost
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Monday, June 12, 2017
Last week has seen four more States become Party to International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s Ballast Water Management Convention, designed to counter the threat to marine ecosystems by potentially invasive species transported in ships' ballast water.
The Convention enters into force on 8 September 2017 and will require ships to manage their ballast water, which can contain thousands of aquatic or marine microbes, plants and organisms, which are then carried across the globe.
The Bahamas deposited its instrument of accession on Thursday (8 June), following accession by Singapore (8 June), ratification by Australia (7 June) and accession by United Arab Emirates (6 June). Saudi Arabia became a Party in April.
This brings the number of States party to the BWM Convention to 59, representing 65.18 % of the world's merchant fleet tonnage.