Transport Canada has issued Ship Safety Bulletin 07/2018, introducing updates to the Canadian Ballast Water Reporting Form. These requirements apply with immediate effect to all vessels designed or built to carry ballast water that arrive in Canada, regardless of whether they intend to ballast or de-ballast.The updates to this form have been made to comply with the requirements of the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC), which entered into force on September 8th, 2017 and requires vessels entering Canadian waters to manage their ballasted tanks in one of the following ways:

• Carry out an exchange
• Use an onboard ballast water treatment system
• Retain ballast on board
• Pump ballast to either a reception facility onshore OR another vessel that can treat or store ballast water.

You can find out more in the attached bulletin.