NSBWO - North Sea Ballast Water Opportunity project

North Sea Ballast Water Opportunity

Background and Aim

Aim
Improving the North Sea Region environment and economy by facilitating ratification of the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC) through enabling implementation, while stimulating the maritime industry to utilize the North Sea Region leading scientific position on aquatic invasions to capitalize this new market opportunity.


Background
The maritime sector is a very important economic pillar for the North Sea Region. As a result, the North Sea is one of the worlds most intensively shipped seas. Unfortunately, ships ballast water is the main source of invasive aquatic organisms. As the North Sea harbours have many important Natura 2000 areas the impact on biodiversity can be massive.

Ships' induced bio-invasions in the recent past has lead to the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC). Implementation of the BWMC is expected to reduce these invasions, however, the Convention has not entered into force as only 14 states -including Norway-, representing 3.5% of world shipping tonnage have ratified the BWMC while 30 States, representing 35% of this tonnage is required.

Implementation of the BWMC creates a new market for innovative products that require research for development. The North Sea Ballast Water Opportunity aims to support the North Sea Region industry to enter this market by capitalizing on the leading reputation of North Sea Region institutes in ecology of invasive marine species and their mitigation.

IMO, HELCOM, and OSPAR provide a platform for policies and legal instruments up to a global level. The EU-FP6 provided us with scientific results on aquatic bio-invasion and mitigation. The Ballast Water Opportunity aimed to complement them with practical solutions and technology by supporting collaboration between the stakeholders on implementation, innovation, and providing opportunities to further reduce bio-invasions. The knowledge gained and networks created would provide a lasting solution for the North Sea Region with regard to ballast water. Thus, the North Sea Region ecosystem could enefit while the North Sea Region maritime industry capitalized the opportunities of the BWMC.


PROJECT DURATION: 2009-01-01 - 2014-06-30
ERDF GRANT: 5,607,669.00 €
ERDF EQUIVALENT: 91,050.00 €
TOTAL ELIGIBLE BUDGET: 11,397,438.00 €
LEAD BENEFICIARY: Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), The Netherlands
PROJECT HOMEPAGE:

Information Hub

Project flyer
Project posters
The Ballast Water Times
The Ballast Water Times - Ports special
The Ballast Water Times - third edition
3rd round Periodic report on activities and finances
5th round Periodic report on activities and finances
4th round Periodic report on activities and finances
6th round Periodic report on activities and finances
7th round Periodic report on activities and finances
8th round Periodic report on activities and finances
The Ballast Water Times - last edition
NSBWO deliverables poster
NSBWO newsletter
2009-00 Newsletter
2009-02 Newsletter
2010-01 Newsletter
2010-02 Newsletter
2010-03 Newsletter
2011-01 Newsletter
2011-01 Newsletter
2011-02 Newsletter
2011-03 Newsletter
2011-04 Newsletter
2012-01 Newsletter
2012-02 Newsletter
2012-03 Newsletter
2012-04 Newsletter
2013-01 Newsletter
2013-02 Newsletter
2013-03 Newsletter
Overview project publications - Fact sheets
Proceedings Conference Emerging Risk from Ballast Water Management, 2010
Proceedingas conference Emerging Risk from Ballast Water Management, 2010
Emerging Risks from Ballast Water treatment
Proceedings NSBWO-Europport 2011
Proceedings NSBWO-Europort 2013
Introducing NSBWO at IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC)
Presentation Confidence and Trust in BWM at IMO-MEPC
Scaling of BWM systems-IMO SubCie BLG 15
Comments on Monitoring and Sampling IMO-BLG 17
Effective technologies for compliance monitoring IMO-BLG 17
INformation on first Type Approval Certifcate of BWM system IMO-MEPC 58
Notification of Type Approval Document UK IMO-MEPC 59
Information Document on NSBWO project IMO-MEPC 59
INformation on Flow Through-IMarEST IMO-MEPC 59
Call for full Transparency IUCN IMO-MEPC 64
Call for ratification of the BWM Convention IUCN e.a. IMO-MEPC 65
Information on testing and implementation NSBWO countries IMO-MEPC 68
Norsas Web site - link to access
Identifying barriers to ratification of the BWM COnvention and future perspectives
INternational impact of NSBWO-How we achieved it-AC14_Cato ten Hallers
International impact of NSBWO-AC12_Cato
Transparency in BWM and other issues inspired by NSBWO-Cato_WMTC2015_Providence RI-USA
NSBWO revisited_achievements & spin offs-Cato_ICES-WGBOSV 2015
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