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As you probably know, ballast water is essential to ensure the ship's stability. This means that every merchant ship uses ballast water somehow. Every year, 10 billion tonnes of ballast water is transported all over the globe. This large number could be hard to grasp, so how much is it? An average 25-meter swimming pool holds approximately 675,000 litres, which means that every year 14.4 million swimming pools are being transported all over the world. That is a lot! And that is just ONE year.
When loading ballast water, organisms, together with the water, will get sucked into the tanks. Sometimes, you will be able to detect them by just looking at the water, but most times, these organisms are so small that it is impossible to identify them with your bare eyes. Depending on the organisms collected and the tank's conditions, they might survive and get discharged and relocated to the next port. If the environmental conditions are suitable, the organisms will thrive, which could be harmful to the ecosystem and human health. If the alien organism has no natural enemies within the new geographic area, we have a severe problem.
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) created the Ballast Water Management Convention to reduce the impact of the spread of organisms or eliminate it entirely. The following video introduces the convention and some of its major clauses.
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