Abstract:
Ships are a dominant factor for biological invasions through ballast water
discharge from their vessel. The organisms or bacteria can survive in longer
period during a voyage because of unsettled sediments inside the ship's
ballast tank which will becomes nutrients for them. When the ship arrived at
the desired port of loading (POL), they will load cargoes and discharging
ballast water into the sea and this has being a major potential problem in
marine ecosystem which new species will be introduce. For prevention, IMO
Convention has implemented new rule since 2007 which required all ships
either existing or new which capacity over 400 gross tonnages should have
BWTS onboard their ship. This research aims to achieve 3 objectives which
are to provide an overview of the readiness of Malaysian Ship Owners
towards BWMC to meet forthcoming regulatory deadlines; to provide
feedback on technical and operational aspects associated with the installation
and use of BWTS; and to encourage the sharing of information on BWTS.
This research used a method known as a survey research to identified
Malaysian ship owners by providing questionnaire and walk-in interview to
gather information about their level of readiness towards BWMC where
consist of cost, technology, knowledge, maintenance, manpower and
moreover. The outcomes of this research as expected where Malaysian ship
owners do not ready yet to comply with IMO Guidelines as only 31.9% from
total ships owned by Malaysian ship owners ready to install treatment system
onboard while the other reluctant in making decision. Future research through
sampling method of Malaysian most major ports should be done to determine
rate of ANS distribution and in incoming 2 years, this research should be
continue as at that time the exact data could probably achieved.
