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Those of us anxiously waiting for
shipboard systems to treat ballast water for invasive species should not despair. Two long days of highly technical presentations on worldwide ballast water technologies have shown some
excellent possibilities. The pervading theme for the 1st International Ballast Water Treatment R&D Symposium might best be thought of as "Cautious Promise."
"Promise" represents the multitude of ideas and the strong feeling of working in union to combat a common threat. Australia and New Zealand are far ahead of the rest of the world on testing
technologies for ballast water (BW) treatment. As the expanding U.S. and E.U. research programs discussed their progress, experienced authorities such as Robert Hilliard of
URS Australia were available to help out. Hilliard and other experts from "down-under" consistently pointed out potential problem areas for current studies to avoid.
"Cautious" represents the continued feeling expressed by the experts in discussions at the meetings. Caution is advised because, although we have come a long way, there are
critical hurdles that remain to be overcome.
Over and over, the delegates expressed their frustration with the lack of internationally accepted ballast water standards. Dr. Stephan Gollasch of the Institute for
Meereskunde in Hamburg spoke on the urgency for standards by which to measure technological efficiency and to sample BW tanks. Lynn McIlwain of Mimmeec in
Victoria Australia stressed the importance for ship owners to have an accepted standard in estimating the life cost of shipboard BW treatment systems. Almost every
speaker had their own problems with missing BW standards.
But the lack of standards is not the only reason for caution. Alec Bilney of ICS made mention directly at the start of the sessions that the world
must NOT forget ballast water exchange at sea. Although it is
under increased criticism, exchanging the harbor water in ballast tanks for seawater from the open ocean is still the only tool available to ship owners, he said. Bilney stressed the need to keep
ballast water exchange at sea on the list of available tools until a realistic effective alternate is available.
By the end of the symposium, Bilney's concern over the lack of immediately available
technologies was valid. Only one technology was identified as currently marketable and working aboard ships. Scientists doubted the technology for that system (UV with
filter separation) would be effective for a wide range of organisms.
In point of fact, the proceedings at the two-day meeting showed that no technology is
available on today's market that will provide 100% protection from invasive species for our watersheds. This is critically important when politicians and political groups insist
on immediate sterilization of ship's ballast water. Rushing to demand that ships must "sterilize" billions of tons of ballast water in the absence of reasonably effective
technologies will only compound the crisis.
Specifics on all the technologies presented are outlined in the following section. They
are grouped in terms of marketability to facilitate understanding by those in the shipping industry.
- Available - currently being used on commercial vessels.
- Tested on Ships - technology has undergone shipboard trials at sea. Most of these technologies are not yet on the market.
- Not yet tested on Ships - technology has either in lab testing, pilot testing, theory only or some other stage of development.
- Research Facilities - Some presentations discussed research facilities being set up for testing various technologies. These are not designed to be marketed but
to test those systems to verify their viability.
