The control of spread of non indigenous species through ballast water – Part A: The Identification of the amount and origin of BW discharged annually in UK ports

Currently the UK do not have any management or reporting requirements in place for ballast water in UK Ports and the historic data on the volume of ballast water discharges is out of date and needs to be updated. The collection of this information on a country by country basis will provide OSPAR with up-to-date information on the amount of ballast water being discharged and enable the risk analysis procedure being developed by the strategy to be focussed on the ports receiving the most ballast water in the UK. Therefore, those ports most at risk from the introduction of non-indigenous species will be targeted by the Strategy, with the aim of determining the best course of action for providing risk based management guidelines for vessels on specific routes in the OSPAR Region.The main objectives of this report are as follows:- To gain up to date information on the quantities of ballast water discharged in UK ports,- To be able to supply information on the amount of ballast water to OSPAR BDC by the middle of 2008 for further development of the Ballast Water Management Strategy for the North East Atlantic,- To gain up to date information on the pathways into, and likely geographic hotspots of non-indigenous species in UK waters,- To obtain data on the origin of the ballast water,- To provide the UK data on ballast water discharge areas in UK waters, as specified in the two bullet points above and to the Ballast Water Management Strategy for the North East Atlantic.