New Zealand is the latest country to accede to 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.
H.E. Sir Lockwood Smith, High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom, met IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim at IMO Headquarters, London (9 January) to deposit the instrument of accession. This brings the number of States party to the Convention to 54, representing 53.30% of the world's merchant fleet tonnage.