HELCOM has released a report on alien species transported via ships’ ballast water that threaten the sensitive Baltic ecosystem and may also have negative impacts to the economy and human health.
The report is the final outcome of HELCOM ALIENS 3 project (2012-2013) which further tested and proposed improvements to the joint HELCOM-OSPAR sampling protocol, specifying methods and means for spotting marine alien species in ports. The project has also updated the related online port survey database and risk assessment tool, shared with the North-East Atlantic marine environment protection commission OSPAR, which went live last week.
The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM convention) specifies a number of measures in order to prevent, minimize and ultimately eliminate the transfer of Harmful Aquatic Organisms and Pathogens through the control and management of ships‘ Ballast Water and Sediments.
However, under certain low risk conditions, the BWM convention Regulation A-4 enables a party to grant exemptions to any requirements to apply ballast water management for ships (regulation B-3) or additional measures (regulation C-1). Whether or not a specific case can be defined as falling under such low risk conditions requires a risk assessment. The overall framework related to these risk assessments is specified in G7 Guidelines for risk assessment under regulation A-4 of the BWM convention (IMO, 2007).
To provide the needed regional detail and ensure effective and harmonized regional implementation of the IMO BWM convention in the Baltic Sea, a regional guidance on such risk assessments for A-4 exemptions in the Baltic Sea was agreed in 2010 within HELCOM by the Baltic Sea coastal states and the EU (HELCOM, 2010).
Based on the 2010 guidance and other work the two commissions, HELCOM and OSPAR, agreed in October 2013 on more comprehensive, quantitative and detailed joint harmonized procedure on A-4 exemptions for the combined HELCOM and OSPAR marine area (HELCOM, 2013a).
As the first step in applying the joint harmonized procedure the applicant for an A-4 exemption should carry out alien species sampling in ports according to the agreed sampling procedure in order to enable a knowledge-based risk assessment. Alternatively the applicant should get access to the results of such surveys done by others. This information should cover each stopover port on the route for which the exemption is applied.
As the second step the applicant should submit the port survey data to a joint regional HELCOM-OSPAR database, established with the joint guidelines, and run the joint online risk assessment model on the data. The agreed risk assessment is based on matching the lists of species found in the stopover ports, a risk assessment algorithm and an agreed list of target species included in the joint guidelines and the tolerances of target species to environmental parameters.
Accordingly, the joint harmonized A-4 procedure includes besides a quantitative risk assessment model, a port sampling protocol to ensure comparability of data, a list of target species, an online decision support tool as well as common administrative procedures.
The HELCOM ALIENS 3 project
The overall aim of the project HELCOM ALIENS 3 (2013-2014)1 was to provide HELCOM Contracting Parties with a possibility to gather further experience with, and provide improvements to, the implementation of the joint harmonized A-4 procedure.
It was a follow-up project of the HELCOM ALIENS 2 (HELCOM, 2013b) which developed many of the approaches underlying the joint harmonized A-4 procedure.
The project started its work during January 2013, and finalised in February 2014. The project was funded by special contributions by Finland and Sweden and by in kind contributions of the HELCOM Secretariat (facilities, working time and travel expenses).
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Overall Results of Port Surveys and improvement suggestions
In order to evaluate if exemptions from BWM can be granted, reliable risk assessments between the ports are a prerequisite. On the other hand, risk assessments rely heavily on available information of the port characteristics as well as species assemblages in the ports.
While testing the Guidance to distinguish between unacceptable high risk scenarios and acceptable low risk scenarios – a risk of spreading of alien species by ships on intra-Baltic voyages in the project “Pilot risk assessments of alien species transfer on intra-Baltic ship voyages”, Gollasch et al. (2011) noted that such information was largely lacking from the Baltic ports.
Ports currently surveyed in the Baltic Sea area. Ports labelled with pink were surveyed within HELCOM ALIENS projects.
As a result, HELCOM MARITIME (2011) identified the need for creating a harmonized sampling protocol for gathering information in the ports as required by risk assessments. Such a HELCOM Port Survey Protocol was developed and tested within the HELCOM ALIENS 2 project (2013b).
Prior to 2012 and the HELCOM ALIENS 2 and 3 projects only Estonia had frequent monitoring of non-indigenous species in the vicinity of the ports and there was no monitoring inside the actual port area. In addition, some individual port surveys and long term projects have been conducted in Poland (e.g. Walk et al. 2011), Lithuania, Germany (Buschbaum et al. 2010) and Finland (Paavola et al. 2008).
Source and Image Credit: HELCOM
For more information please read the report by clicking below:
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