Water scooped up by ships for ballast and dumped at the end of a voyage can cause as much damage as an oil spill by carrying marine life to new coastlines, environmental group the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned on Wednesday.
Ahead of a four-day marine conference in London from Monday, the WWF urged countries to adopt a convention requiring ships to treat the water to make it safe to expel — a notion that has been on the agenda for 15 years.
”Ballast water, carried by ships to provide balance and stability, is loaded with thousands of marine species that can invade new environments when released in ports,” the WWF said in a statement.
”The impact of exotic invasive species can be as damaging as oil spills, and their effects much more persistent,” it said.
In 1986, ships from Europe transported European zebra mussels to the United States, which have since infested more than 40% of internal waterways in the Great Lakes and required $750-million to control, according to the conservation group.
Similarly, in the early 1980s, North American jellyfish were introduced in the Black Sea, said Andreas Tveteraas, a WWF expert.
”They managed to establish themselves in a very short period of time and led to a total collapse of local fish stocks,” he said, adding that the cost for the affected countries such as Turkey came to $350-million.
The WWF wants the 163 members states of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which is due to meet in London from February 9 to 13, to adopt a strong convention on ballast water.
This convention must encourage the development and use of technology such as filter mechanisms to keep out marine life as it is taken onboard a vessel, explained Tveteraas.
Further treatment would be necessary before the water is released back into the sea to kill off remaining bacteria and other planktonic species, he said.
”Anything short of the immediate adoption of a convention that is sufficiently strong in reducing the threats posed by invasive species is unacceptable, as it will result in continued risks to both global biodiversity and human health,” said Tveteraas, who will head the WWF’s IMO delegation.
IMO member states have failed to reach an accord over the issue for the past 15 years due largely to resistance from countries reluctant to invest in the technology required to make the ballast water safe, sources said.
But the WWF expert was confident of success this year as pressure mounts on the shipping industry to tackle the problem.
”We have now reached the stage where the countries have agreed that the convention is so close to being completed that they have called for a so-called diplomatic conference which is set up to be the final meeting,” Tveteraas said, referring to the IMO meeting.
”I expect countries will do all they can to complete the convention next week.” — Sapa-AFP