DNV GL ADDITIONAL RULES AND GUIDELINES VI-11-10 PDF

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has developed legislation that regulates management of ballast water from ships with the aim to minimize the risk of introducing non-native species through the discharge of ballast water and sediments into other coastal regions. The "International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004" (hereafter referred to as BWM Convention) provides for different methods to achieve this objective,

Depending on ballast water capacity and construction date of the ship, the applicable method is specified in an implementation schedule in BWM Convention Regulation B-3 ‘Ballast Water Management for Ships' and its supporting Circulars.

These Guidelines define GL requirements for the Ballast Water Management Plan in Section 2, while Sections 3 and 4 set out requirements for Ballast Water Exchange and Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) using the respective treatment technologies .

The BWM Convention requires that BWMS using treatment technologies are to be type approved by an IMO member state. In addition, there are classification related issues with respect to the system itself and the integration into a ship that need to be addressed separately under a plan approval process as outlined in Section 4.