Overall Conclusions on the Ballast Water Issue and Its Management Options

The Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention entered into force in September 2018 to provide for a globally uniform approach in preventing harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens to further spread around the world by ballast water and sediment releases for the protection of natural environments, human health, property and resources, while at the same time considering the aspects of safe and efficient operations of shipping. As many times expressed before, the implementation of BWM measures has shown to be challenging at many different levels, from technical to legal, which triggers constant needs for further continuous research and development of new technologies, methods, procedures, etc. After the first edition of this book was published in 2015 we continued with research efforts and work with BWMS producers and the shipping industry at the global level, as well as the cooperation at the Administration levels, which provided interesting insights and information resulting in this new edition. The updated state of knowledge is summarised here and presented thematically as per the book chapters. The main conclusions including some recognised issues, which are still to be solved in the future, are presented at the end.