Ballast Water

'Ballast' is any material used to weight and/or balance an object. Ships have carried solid ballast in form of rocks and/or metal for thousands of years. Ships of modern times however use 'sea water' itself as ballast, referred to as 'Ballast Water'.

Ballasting helps in submergence of propeller and ruder for steerage. When a ship is emptied of cargo at some port, it is filled with ballast water to maintain its stability. Next time when it is to be reloaded at another port, this ballast water is discharged at that port. In the process the live organisms as part of the ballast water are also released in the sea at this new port, causing marine bioinvasion.

International seaways account to over 80% of world's commodities transportation. According to studies done under the Global Ballast Water Management Programme by IMO - London, shipping transfers about 10 billion tonnes of ballast water around the globe each year. This itself is indicative enough of the scale & pace at which this problem is multiplicating all over the world, and especially at busy ports like ones in India.

Effects of Ballast Water

Worldwide, marine bioinvasion of a wide spectrum of organisms including plants & animals have been reported. The overall impact can be broadly categorised under three major areas;

Ecological:
Disruption & changes native in biodiversity & restucturing of the food web. It is estimated that, every nine weeks, a new marine specie is invading a new environment somewhere in the world.

Economical:
When fisheries, coastal industry and other commercial activities and resources are disrupted by the invading species. They may clog the coastal pipelines, drainage and other such places, disrupting the operations. In the USA alone, the economic losses due to this are estimated to be US $ 138 billion each year.

Human Health:
When toxic organisms, diseases & pathogens are introduced through ballast water, it spreads illness and can cause even death of affected human beings.