UN Agrees on Laws Against 'Alien' Marine Invaders
Date: 16-Feb-04
Country: UK
Author: Stefano Ambrogi
"They're signing the final act now. We do have a convention," said a spokesman for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) at the close of a five-day diplomatic meeting at its headquarters in London.
The world's top maritime body met this week to finalize a global treaty, 10 years in the making, on how to stop the destructive impact of "invasive alien species" which the U.N., and the scientific community say is one four main threats facing the world's oceans.
The creeping menace, carried in ships' ballast, is estimated to be causing billions of dollars worth of economic damage every year and has even been linked to facilitating the spread of major diseases like cholera.
The WWF estimates that 4,000 different species can hitch-hike in a typical ship's ballast at any one time.
Ballast provides ships with balance and stability, but also gives a free ride for up to 100 different organisms per cubic meter of water, until they are flushed into another ecosystem thousands of miles away.
WWF's delegate Andreas Inveteraas said nations had reached a compromise solution to allow 10 organisms to be transported in every cubic meter of water. Some countries, including the United States, had been pushing for a figure of 0.04 organisms per cubic meter.
The World Wildlife Fund which had warned of a marine environmental disaster in the making if tough action was not taken broadly welcomed the agreement, but said the treaty could take time to enter force.
"The huge challenge now will be to ratify the treaty - and that could take years," said Inveteraas, adding that 30 countries, or 35 percent of the world's fleet of over 100,000 ships, needed to approve the deal. "That could be a stumbling block and lead to regionalization," he said.
GLOBALIZATION TO BLAME
Tveteraas said that after much deliberation, nations had agreed to a phase-in period for ships to comply with mandatory regulations on the treatment of an estimated 10 billion tonnes of ballast water carried round the globe every year.
The series of deadlines, that begins in 2009 and ends in 2016 relate to the size, type and age of vessels.
Ships that carry over 5,000 cubic meters of ballast water will be given the longest time to comply, he said.
Experts says the environmental problem is getting worse due to increasing globalization and exploding international trade. Over 90 percent of the world's traded goods are carried by sea.
Oil tankers, because of their size, are particularly problematic as they need to suck up huge quantities of water in short periods of to offset their crude oil cargoes that are discharged.
The United States has been hit particularly hard by the transfer of harmful organisms - it has spent around $140 billion dollars to counter coastal marine invasions.
