Ballast water is used to ensure vessel safety whilst trading in changeable operating environments and conditions under variable loads.
When cargo is offloaded, ballast water is taken onboard to provide weight compensation and maintain a ships level operating condition. The opposite applies when cargo is loaded and ballast water is discharged.
It is estimated that around 3bn tonnes of ballast water is transferred internationally each year. The ‘problem’ occurs when ballast water containing a variety of unwanted organisms, often referred to as ‘invasive species’, are released into alien port and costal environments away from their origins. These invasive species have the potential to invade and even destroy local ecology and this is recognised as one of the four greatest threats to the world’s coastal ecosystems.
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