#28 Ballast Water Blues Still with us

xogenous marine species, invasive marine species, introduced marine pests, harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens, non-indigenous alien marine hitchhikers, call them what you will. The introduction of non-native marine microbes, plants and animals to new environments by shipping is widely recognised as an ecological time-bomb, threatening the world’s already highly strained coastal and marine resources. The last edition of Slick Talk by Steve Hillman (Reef Research Vol. 9, No. 3) provided a good overview of this subject and the outcomes of the ballast water workshop held in Brisbane in May 1999.

Over the last few years Reef Research has featured a number of articles on this major problem, and the Summer 1999/2000 issue of Waves, the newsletter of the Marine and Coastal Community Network, contains a thorough treatment of latest initiatives to address introduced marine pests in Australia. Many have been spurred on by the discovery of alien striped mussels in Darwin in early 1999.

At the international level, a new global project as outlined in Slick Talk (Reef Research, Vol. 9, No. 2), has now commenced. Currently entitled ‘Removal of Barriers to the Effective Implementation of Ballast Water Control and Management Measures in Developing Countries’, this US$12 million, three-year project is being funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and other parties, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), under the GEF International Waters portfolio.

This project will assist developing countries to implement effective measures to control the introduction of foreign marine species, initially through six demonstration sites. These are intended to represent the six main developing regions of the world, being Dalian/East Asia, Mumbay/South Asia, Kharg Island/Middle East, Cape Town/Africa, Odessa/Eastern Europe and Rio De Janeiro/South America. It is planned that as these sites progress they will be replicated throughout each region. It is hoped that the project will further catalyse the development of an international regulatory regime for ballast water through galvanising action by IMO member states.

My contract at the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) was recently completed and I am pleased to have been recruited by IMO to work as Technical Adviser on the global ballast water project. Regular updates on the project will be provided through this column. In addition, an important feature of the project will be the establishment of a comprehensive global information clearinghouse at IMO on all matters relating to invasive marine species. Readers are invited to bookmark the IMO web site http://www.imo.org to remain abreast of international developments in this area.

South Pacific Sets Course for Cleaner Seas

It is with some reluctance that I move on from my role as Marine Pollution Adviser at SPREP and its base in Apia, Samoa, with its Beach Road and waterfront bars like "Otto’s Reef", the ‘Blue Marlin’, "Don’t Drink the Water" and ‘On the Rocks’, for ‘civilised’ London and IMO.

But it is also with a feeling of satisfaction that at least some progress has been made in getting the new regional marine pollution program up and running. Over the last two years, the SPREP member countries have agreed to and endorsed a new five-year regional strategy and workplan to address ship-sourced marine pollution in their 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone’s, an area larger than the mainlands of China, Canada and the United States of America combined.

Called the Pacific Ocean Pollution Prevention Programme, or PACPOL for short, the strategy and workplan has to date attracted over US$1.25 million in funding from a variety of sources, including the governments of Canada and Australia, the IMO and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Significant support-in-kind has also been received from France, New Zealand, the United States, SPREP island members and the international oil industry.

These resources have been deployed by PACPOL to deliver a number of benefits to SPREP island members over the last two years. These include (but are not restricted to):

• Annual training courses in oil spill response. A hundred personnel from throughout the region having now been trained at a middle-management level and planning is already underway for future annual workshops.
• The development of regional model marine pollution legislation for use as a template by Pacific island countries. This allows countries, most of which do not have effective regulatory regimes for marine pollution, to rapidly draft and pass legislation that is consistent with the international regime and harmonized across the region. The response from countries has been tremendous and several missions have been undertaken by PACPOL staff and the Regional Maritime Legal Adviser from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), to assist countries with legislative drafting.
• A Regional Marine Spill Contingency Plan has been prepared. This sets out the mechanisms for regional cooperation and external assistance in the event of major marine pollution emergencies, and implements the multi-lateral cooperation aspects of the International Convention for Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response Cooperation 1990 (OPRC 90).
• A template has been developed for national marine spill contingency plans (NATPLANs), and assistance has been provided to several countries, including the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa and Tuvalu, to develop such plans.
• A comprehensive marine pollution education and awareness raising campaign has been commenced, and a variety of products primarily targeting the foreign fishing fleet have been produced and distributed.
• A training workshop has been held for regional port personnel on the planning, development, operation and maintenance of port waste reception facilities.
• Two major consultancy contracts have been awarded, one to undertake an in-depth GIS-based marine pollution risk assessment for the region and one to develop a comprehensive strategy for the provision of adequate port waste reception facilities throughout the region, in accordance with the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78).

Significant efforts are continuing to secure further funding to carry out a range of additional PACPOL projects in the next three to four years, including the development and implementation of integrated marine pollution management plans at key demonstration sites in the sub-regions of Micronesia (Kosrae Island), Melanesia (Suva Harbour) and Polynesia (to be selected).

Working at SPREP to develop and commence implementation of PACPOL has served as an extremely useful lesson in the dynamics of regional, multilateral programs and the mechanics and politics of the international aid industry. Many obstacles to success are encountered in such programs, including a lack of absorbative capacity in recipient countries, which are currently being bombarded with an overwhelming multitude of environmental aid initiatives.

During my time at SPREP, a common deficiency observed in regional programs, is that the contract period of project management staff (who are mainly expatriates) is often not aligned with the project time-frame. This means staff may leave the implementing regional organisation part-way through the project, and the project crashes while bureaucracies lumber to fill the vacancy, sometimes taking six to 12 months to do so.

Avoiding this situation was identified as a high priority early on in the development of PACPOL. Resourcing was secured to employ a regional counterpart to work alongside me for a period of six months, before assuming management of the program. This simple successional and sustainability plan has ensured a smooth transition and continuation of the PACPOL programme at the end of my contract. Sefanaia Nawadra, a Fiji National with experience as a regulator in the Fiji Environment Department, in industry as the regional Environment, Health and Safety Manager for Shell Oil and in consulting with the Suva office of Sinclair Knight Merz, is now the Marine Pollution Adviser and PACPOL Programme Manager at SPREP. For further information contact Sefa at SefanaiaN@sprep.org.ws or visit the SPREP web site at http://www.sprep.org.ws.

At the time of writing I do not have my new e-mail at IMO, but their web site is given above.