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Transportation and translocation of non-native species by ships through ballast water is one of the current issues the shipping industry is trying to address. The Ballast Water Convention is nearing full ratification after which treatment of ballast water will become mandatory for most of the trading merchant vessel categories. Ballast water management systems employing various technologies are commercially available but at high costs. Economics apart, the efficiency of these technologies and realistic ways to ensure compliance with stricter requirements of some Administrations are issues that need to be focussed upon. With the report of the Environmental Protection Agency as an assessment reference, this paper reviews the treatment technologies. Juxtaposing reports of Lloyd's Register on the status, a concise overview of the technologies has been projected. A sustainable ballast water management based on data and assessments is proposed. The management must be extended to both shore and on-board platforms for practices, treatment, sampling, testing, and recycling. An exemplar system harvesting shipboard waste heat is projected as a route for thermal treatment in combination with technologies showing potential for optimized ballast water management. Key words: ballast water treatment, The EPA Report, combination treatment, waste heat, sustainable ballast water management. Le transport et la translocation d'especes non indigenes par les eaux de lestage des navires constituent un probleme courant dont l'industrie maritime doit se preoccuper. La Convention sur les eaux de lestage, sur le point de recevoir une plaine ratification, deviendra obligatoire pour la plupart des categories de navires marchands. Les systemes d'amenagement des eaux de lestage utilisant diverses technologies sont disponibles commercialement, mais a des couts eleves. Mise a part l'aspect economique, l'efficacite de ces technologies et les moyens realistes d'assurer la conformite avec les reglements les plus rigoureux de certaines administrations constituent des problemes sur lesquels on doit concentrer les efforts. Avec le rapport de l'Agence de protection de l'environnement comme reference pour revaluation, les auteurs ont revu les technologies de traitement. En juxtaposant les rapports du registre de la Lloyd sur l'etat de la situation, ils ont projete un survol concis des technologies. On propose un amenagement durable des eaux de lestage base sur des donnees et des evaluations. L'amenagement doit s'etendre a la fois aux cotes et aux plates formes a bord des bateaux pour les pratiques, le traitement, l'echantillonnage, les analyses et le recyclage. On projette un systeme de recolte a bord des navires avec recuperation de la chaleur perdue, comme piste pour le traitement thermique en combinaison avec des technologies montrant un potentiel pour un amenagement optimal des eaux de lestage. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: traitement des eaux de lestage, le rapport de l'APE, combinaison de traitements, chaleur perdue, amenagement durable des eaux de lestage., 1. Introduction Global trade and related economic activities are fundamental causes for the shift of invasive species (Perrings et al. 2002; Jones and Kasamba 2008). Establishment of waterways, aquaculture, and [...]

Ballast water is carried by cruise ships, large tankers, and bulk cargo carriers to acquire the optimum operating depth of the propeller and to maintain maneuverability and stability. Recently, ballast water has been recognized as wastewater that is responsible for ocean pollution due to the worldwide transfer of non-indigenous species, pathogenic bacteria, and other pollutants via ballast water discharge. This poses serious environmental, ecological, and economic threats to both coastal communities and the marine environment. To address these negative impacts and concerns, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has codified and adopted a series of guidelines to minimize pollution and adverse effects caused by ballast water. A number of treatment technologies have been developed and applied in field practices to remove solids, particulates, organic pollutants, and organisms from ballast water, showing certain advantages and limitations. Many other management practices, such as ballast water exchange (BWE), shipping routes optimization, treatment process modeling, and risk assessment are in high demand to aid onboard treatment systems. However, knowledge and technical gaps still exist regarding the implementation of ballast water management practices especially in the context of arctic and harsh environments under changing climatic conditions. Records indicate that most coastal regions in the north have been invaded by unwanted species via ballast water discharge in the past decades. The North Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans have much colder climates and more extreme weather conditions than low latitudes. The discharge of untreated or less treated ballast water could cause much more severe damage to the local environment and hence pose higher risks to ecosystems and even human health, particularly in the context of climate change. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this study proposed a risk-based fuzzy-stochastic-interval programming decision support system to help eliminate environmental, ecological, as well as health threats from the discharge of ballast water, particularly in the north where weather, space, timing, maintenance, and cost are major concerns. Key words: ballast water, wastewater, ocean pollution, management practice, harsh environments. Les bateaux de croisiere, les petroliers et les vraquiers transportent de l'eau de lestage pour obtenir une profondeur optimale de fonctionnement des helices et pour maintenir la manoeuvrabilite et la stabilite. Recemment, on a reconnu l'eau de lestage comme eau usee responsable de la pollution des oceans causee par le transfert mondial d'especes non indigenes, de bacteries pathogenes et autres polluants, via la decharge des eaux de lestage. Ceci entraine de serieuses menaces environnementales, ecologiques et economiques a la fois pour les communautes cotieres et le milieu marin. Pour tenir compte de ces impacts negatifs et autres preoccupations, l'Organisation maritime internationale (OMI) a codifie et adopte une serie d'orientations pour minimiser la pollution et les effets indesirables causes par l'eau de lestage. Un ensemble de technologies de traitements s'est developpe et est applique dans les pratiques de terrain pour eliminer les polluants solides, particulaires et organiques, ainsi que les organismes des eaux de lestage, montrant certains avantages et limitations. Plusieurs autres pratiques d'amenagement, comme l'echange des eaux de lestage (EEL), l'optimisation des routes maritimes, la modelisation des processus de traitement et l'evaluation des risques sont en forte demande pour assister les systemes de traitement a bord. Cependant, les manques de connaissances et de techniques existent toujours concernant la mise en oeuvre des pratiques d'amenagement des eaux de lestage, surtout dans le contexte de l'arctique et des environnements rigoureux sous les conditions changeantes des modifications climatiques. Les registres indiquent que la plupart des regions cotieres du nord ont ete envahies par des especes indesirables via la decharge des eaux de lestage au cours des recentes decades. Les oceans nord-atlantique et arctique connaissent un climat beaucoup plus froid et des conditions meteorologiques plus extremes que celles des basses latitudes. La decharge d'eaux de lestage non traitees ou peu traitees pourrait causer des dommages beaucoup plus severes a l'environnement local et consequemment constituer un risque plus eleve pour les ecosystemes et meme a la sante humaine, surtout dans le contexte du changement climatique. Sur la base d'une revue de litterature integrative, cette etude propose un systeme de support de decision basee sur une programmation a intervalles stochastiques floues, pour aider a eliminer les menaces environnementales, ecologiques ainsi qu'a la sante humaine, causees par la decharge des eaux de lestage, surtout dans le nord ou la temperature, l'espace, le moment, la maintenance et le cout constituent des preoccupations majeures. Mots cles : eau de lestage, eau usee, pollution oceanique, pratique d'amenagement, environnements severes. Mots-cles : eau de lestage, eau usee, pollution oceanique, pratique d'amenagement, environnements severes. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction For centuries, solid ballast such as rocks and sand was carried by ships to acquire the optimum operating depth for the propeller and to adjust the draft to maintain [...]

I. INTRODUCTION II. BALLAST WATER AS A CONDUIT FOR INVASIVE SPECIES TRANSFERS A. Dispersal of Invasive Species Through Ballast Water Discharges B. The Technology Gap III. THE INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR [...], Ballast water discharges are responsible for many of the most damaging aquatic invasive species introductions around the world Despite the costs, environmental harm, and tremendous threat posed by aquatic invasive species introductions, no binding federal or international regime exists that requires the adoption of treatment technologies for ballast water discharges. Recently, however, in Northwest Environmental Advocates v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must regulate ballast water discharges under the Clean Water Act. In light of the implications of Northwest Environmental Advocates, this Chapter examines the efficacy of existing and proposed federal, state, and international ballast water controls, and explores whether the United States could drive the adoption of treatment technologies that exceed the proposed international standard The Chapter concludes with suggestions on how the United States might resolve the contlicts between federal, state, and international ballast water controls.

Marine transportation moves the vast majority of cargo volume in international trade. Ballast water loaded in one port to stabilize ships for a safe voyage contains local aquatic species that are later discharged into other ports, where they are potentially invasive and can cause ecological, socioeconomic, and human health consequences. This article discusses the new Global Ballast Water Convention, what the Convention suggests about the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and its relationship to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The article also considers implementation of the Ballast Water Convention by presenting a decision support model that allows regulators to explore tradeoffs between costs and benefits of new technologies and derive optimal reductions of ballast-water-borne biological pollutants. Keywords Ballast Water Convention, IMO, invasive species, marine environment, UNCLOS

Author(s): Guillaume Drillet (corresponding author) [1] Aquaculture is the world's fastest-growing food-production sector and a crucial contributor to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. As a group of scientists, ocean-policy [...]

With Reid and Hudson (2008), we lament the weak representation of taxonomic expertise in modern biology. In fact, we have advocated increased funding for research in systematics and programs for [...]

Greg Ruiz and researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center are examining ballast water samples carried by ocean-plying vessels for microorganisms that could potentially spread harmful diseases. Cholera bacteria found in all screened tanks and asexual reproduction of microorganisms suggest that colonization, gene transfer, and new strains of microorganisms could successfully invade an environmental system.

Foreign plants and animals arrive in the US every day in the ballast water of ships, often displacing local species of snails, clams, fish and plants and threatening environmental balance. Researchers have counted 234 species of foreign marine life established in the San Francisco Bay, damaging the native biodiversity irreparably. Scientists are calling for closer monitoring of ballast dumping to prevent future invasions, but there is little hope of eliminating the invaders that are already here., Waterways and farmland are being irreversibly altered by exotic plants and animals that are spread through global trade IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, where residents take pride in their [...]

In this issue of Science, Carlton and Geller[1] report the global dispersal of alien plankton by inadvertent transport in the ballast water of ships. Their analysis demonstrates, among other things, [...]