Ballast Water Management - Belgium ratifies the convention
On 7 March 2016, Belgium became the 48th country to ratify the Ballast Water Management Convention. The accession of Belgium brings the aggregate percentage of the world's merchant fleet tonnage to 34.82. A small island State, Sate, is expected to deposit on 8 March bringing the number to 49. However, as there is zero tonnage registered in that State, this will not change the above aggregate tonnage. For further information, please see the attached link:
In this, the third and final episode addressing BWM, the topic of Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement of the Ballast Water Management Convention is examined with Dr Guillaume Drillet from SGS.
Members will recall that the US, whilst not a State Party to the Ballast Water Management Convention, moved its federal performance standards for ballast water discharges closer to those of the IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention following the enactment of its Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA) in 2018.
