‘Safety4Sea’ a maritime safety and environmental portal, aim to highlight environmental awareness specifically focusing on practices to create a ‘Greener’ industry. To achieve this, a ’Green4Sea’ Forum was held in Athens this week, where a wide range of eco issues and developments in the Marine environment were discussed. 450 Organisations including those in Mainly Safety, Technical, Operations and marine departments of Shipping Operators were present including the UK Club. Alec Kyrle-Pope, Senior Claims Executive at the Thomas Miller Hellas office, promoted a discussion on The Ballast Water Management Convention.Alec’s presentation focused on the best possible planning for the Convention coming into effect and the importance of continually consulting industry to achieve this. He stressed that Shipowners need to be aware of the developments and the available systems in order to understand the market and that as a Club we have a duty to educate our members on bio fouling and EPA infringements.
This was also covered by Greek national television channel 'SKAI' which provided video footage of the speakers both on the Green4Sea website and also on YouTube. More information can be found on the Green4Sea Website here:
It is also worth noting the advice the Club offers in order to assist our Members in avoiding loss through environmental risk. This includes a dedicated Resources page on the website which aims to collate all material in respect of Ballast Water Management.
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.
