Ballast Water Sampling for Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement of the BWM Convention: D-1 and D-2 Indicative Tests
摘要
In accordance with the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention, vessels may be subject to inspections for the purpose of revealing violations of convention provisions. To enable this, sampling of ballast water for subsequent analyses is needed. The reliability of compliance tests is of critical importance, since the consequences of failing compliance with the required standards may result in vessels being banned from discharging ballast water, which may result in the inability of completing cargo operations. We tested D-1 and D-2 indicative sampling and analysis methods on commercial vessels during voyages and on vessels calling to Slovenian and Italian ports. Sampling at different depths along the in-tank water column evidenced heterogeneous distribution of physico-chemical parameters, i.e., salinity, temperature, pH and oxygen content, and viable phytoplankton. The highest phytoplankton abundance was observed in bottom samples. Very high phytoplankton abundances of organisms <10 μm were observed compared to organisms 10–50 μm.