Ballast water bugs under scrutiny

Participants got up close and personal with some potentially invasive species in ballast water during a practical workshop on sampling and analysis of ballast water, held in Duluth, United States (19-21 October). The IMO-GloBallast “Train-the-Trainer” workshop provided training for port State control officers and marine biologists from South America and the wider Caribbean region, in preparation for the implementation of the Ballast Water Convention. The workshop was hosted by the Great Ship Initiative (GSI) of the Northeast Midwest Institute (NEMWI), a ballast water management system testing facility located on the Great Lakes. A total of 14 participants from Argentina, Bahamas, Chile, Colombia, Jamaica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago gained hands-on experience of sampling and analysis onboard a ship and at the NEMWI marine laboratory. Antoine Blonce and Theofanis Karayannis from IMO Headquarters attended the workshop, along with Vassilis Tsigourakos, GloBallast's regional coordinator for the wider Caribbean region, who is based at the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Information and Training Center for the Wider Caribbean (REMPEITC-Caribe) in Curaçao.

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