Practical impediments to the effective utilization of Ballast Water Management Plan from Port facilities and Shipping practice

Since the new Ballast Water Management Convention entered into force in 2017, the ballast water should be cleansed of any harmful aquatic organisms, pathogens, wastes or even bacteria, before being released into a new aquatic environment. For this purpose, the ships are required to carry i) a ballast water management plan with detailed descriptions upon the implementation of the Convention's requirements, ii) a ballast water record book, clearly stating the release spots and stations of ballast water and iii) an International Water management certificate, stating if the ship should abide the D-1 or D-2 standards. The research questions of this paper are, i) should these standards apply when ballast water is released into more aggressive aquatic environments than the one that the outgoing ballast was collected? ii) how a port authority will be able to enforce the Convention's rules when the water release happens in open waters and how a vessel can be criminalized? iii) Are the Port Facilities prepared and equipped in a global spectrum with the necessary tools to handle the ships’ demand on waste water unloading? iv) is the creation of an aquatic map stating the level of threat the local organisms pose to other aquatic environments viable and how this will help with the decrease of ballast water management processes.