A summary of the decision taken at the sixty-eighth session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 68) held from 11 to 15 May 2015 is provided as below for your information.

1. Ballast Water Management Convention
Ballast Water Management Convention was adopted in 2004 in order to prevent the adverse effects to the marine environment caused by the transfer of ballast water. The Convention will require ships to conduct ballast water exchange offshore or through Ballast Water Management Systems which meet the standard for the discharge of ballast water.
The Convention will enter into force 12 months after ratification by 30 states, representing 35% of the world merchant shipping tonnage.

(1) Status of ratification
Since MEPC 67 held in October 2014, Georgia has ratified Ballast Water Management Convention. The Convention is currently ratified by 44 states, representing 32.86%, and it has not yet come into effect.

(2) Approval of Ballast Water Management Systems
Under the Convention, Ballast Water Management Systems should be type approved by the Administration based on the IMO guideline. In case where "active substances" are used to sterilize harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens, the basic approval of the active substances itself by IMO and the final approval of the systems by IMO are needed prior to the type approval by the Administration.
At this session, five (5) basic approvals and one (1) final approval were granted to Ballast Water Management Systems using active substances. Consequently, the number of systems granted final approval by IMO has reached thirty seven (37) in total.
At this moment, the number of systems which can be actually installed on board, i.e. which are type-approved by the Administration, including the systems not using active substances, has reached fifty seven (57) in total. The list of the approved systems is available at the following IMO website:
http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/BallastWaterManagement/Pages/BWMTechnologies.aspx

(To be continued)