1 Except as provided in this
Amex, Parties shall
require ships entitled to fly
their flag or to
operate under their authority
to: [ and ships shall ]
(a)
conduct on all [Deep Sea
Voyages ]Open Ocean Voyage
at least one of
the Ballast Management
Options contained in
Appendix 1, Part A. Section
l; and
(b)
conduct on all voyages Other
Precautionary Practices
listed in Appendix I
. Part A, Section 2:
and
(c)
conduct on all voyage the
ballast water management
requirements of the
destination port state
(or a state in whose
waters the ship intends
to discharge ballast)
provided they are [consistent
with this
Annex] [according to
the options contained in
part A, Section 3 of
Appendix ?].14
United States comments 15
14 The original text of 4.1 (c), seems
to have
been accidentally deleted between versions
2 and 3 of the
proposals discussed at MEPC 4 1 . We
propose rewording as
above and note that without a clause
4.1 (c), there is no
requirement on ships with respect to
Appendix 1, Part A,
Section 3 (regulation 4.4 only refers
to requirements on port
States).
15 Precautionary practices - As
noted above, ballast
water exchange is not 100% effective
and cannot be undertaken
on all voyages, especially near coastal
voyages. The draft
instrument includes precautionary practices
for ships to
undertake to help mitigate the transfer
of unwanted organisms
and pathogens, whether or not ballast
exchange is a
possibility. However, the list of "Other
Precautionary
Practices" contained in Appendix
I , Part A, Section 2
and referenced in Regulation 4(1 )(b)
was drafted for the
voluntary Assembly Resolution and should
be updated and
revised for use as part of a legally
binding instrument. To
aid in the effective implementation of
precautionary
practices by ships, we suggest that:
1 Practices refercnced in Regulation
4(1)(b)
should be mandatory for ships, rather
than linked in the
regulation itself to "all voyages"
as currently
stated in the regulation. For example,
the timely removal of
ballast sediments should be mandatory
for all ships.
2 T he Working Group consider
how to better
address the problem of the international
spread of reported
outbreaks of serious harmful aquatic
organisms or pathogens,
including consideration of a prohibition
on the discharge of
untreated or unexchanged foreign ballast
water originating
from areas of reported outbreaks of harmful
aquatic organisms
or pathogcns. (There is a proposed requirement
on Port States
to notify the Organization of such outbreaks
in draft
Regulation 7(4)).
3 Practices that are recommended
and subject
to the discretion of the ship's Master
should be clearly
designated as optional, but their practice
encouraged.
