IMO Headquarters in London is the venue today and tomorrow (12-13 January) for the 6th Ballast Water Technology Conference organized by IMarEST. Opening the meeting, IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim reminded delegates that the Ballast Water Management Convention actively addressed the problem of transferring invasive species, which has been degrading the marine environment for decades.
He said the Convention, which enters into force in September this year, would set clear and robust standards for how to manage ballast water on ships, and that shipping must embrace it if the industry wants a sustainable future.
The event followed the two-day annual meeting of the GloBal TestNet, an independent entity created under the Global Industry Alliance (GIA) of the GloBallast Project, executed by IMO.