Ballast Water Management and the Marine Environment
“Διαχείρισης Θαλασσίου Έρματος και το Θαλάσσιο Περιβάλλον"
28 February, Athens
Non-indigenous species (NIS) can be transported across regions through ballast water of large vessels and can become invasive (IAS), out-competing local flora and fauna. This can severely damage the environment, human health and economic interests. To prevent the spread of harmful IAS, the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWMC) entered into force in September 2017, establishing standards and procedures for the management and control of ballast water and sediments.
Implementation challenges include the high cost of ballast water treatment systems (BWTS), and issues related to their installation (when retrofitting), operation and maintenance. Technical developments have intensified, focusing on prevention (BWTS), early detection (metagenomics) and eradication of IAS (citizens in science), while ocean literacy and awareness are also necessary.
Copyright: IMO
What actions (technological, economic, environmental, legal, social) are necessary to ensure that ballast water is adequately managed to guarantee a sustainable marine transportation in Greece while safeguarding the marine environment?
You want to use your creative mind to develop solutions that best serve individual citizens, your local community and the European society at large. You want to make sure that your needs and expectations are taken into account when local, national and European decisions and innovations are being developed.
The workshop is organised by Dr. Maggie Kossida (SEVEN Engineering Consultants) using the Focus Groups methodology.
It will involve citizens, scientists, business representatives, entrepreneurs, local authorities and policy makers in an open dialogue. Together, you will define a common vision and a roadmap of solutions and actions to face this challenge.
The results, together with the outcomes of the other MARINA workshops in Europe, will be freely accessible on the MARINA Web Knowledge Sharing Platform, used for identifying lessons learned and best practices and disseminated at European policy conferences.
Location: Yacht Club of Greece 18, Karagiorgi Servias str. 18533, Piraeus, Greece
