A three-day national workshop on compliance monitoring and enforcement aspects of the Ballast Water Management Convention has been held in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran (10-12 October). The workshop focussed on port and flag State control, including sampling and analysis of ballast water for compliance purposes. The Islamic Republic of Iran acceded to the BWM treaty in 2011 and was one of the pilot countries which participated in the GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Pilot Project from 2000. Opening the workshop, jointly organized by IMO and the Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Jalil Eslami, Member of Board and Deputy Managing Director of PMO, emphasised the importance of the BWM Convention to the Islamic Republic of Iran which has long coast lines which need to be protected from the harmful impacts of marine invasive species as well as an important and growing shipping fleet. The training workshop was attended by high-ranking officials of various government organizations, academia, class societies and the shipping industry and was facilitated by a team of IMO staff and consultants.