The readiness of Malaysian ship's owners towards ballast water management compliance

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.