2nd IMarEST Ballast Water Conference Begins Next Month

Delegates from 14 countries have registered for next month’s Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology’s 2nd IMarEST Ballast Water Technology Conference, being held in central London (Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, London NW1) on Thursday 9 – Friday 10 May 2013, just prior to IMO’s MEPC 6.

“With its theme ‘Compliance and Enforcement’, it will have a truly international flavour thanks to the presence of delegates from Canada, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, S. Korea, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, UK and USA,” explains IMarEST’s Chief Executive, David Loosley. “As we move closer to ratification time, this is certainly a hot topic with which IMarEST is heavily to be involved by means of our work with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), our highly topical conference and through the medium our technical publications. We are looking forward to an extremely stimulating two days of discussion next month.”

“IMarEST is the world’s largest marine technical society and hosts the BW Experts Group (BWEG),” explains Tom Mackey of Hyde Marine Inc, who is chairing the conference and is Co-Chairman of BWEG. “The primary objective of BWEG is to share knowledge related to our common interest and to disseminate it to our membership and to the wider maritime community. One way we hope to accomplish this is through events such as the second IMarEST Ballast Water Conference, building on the very successful first event in February 2012.

“The conference is a cooperation of several organisations, including IMO GloBallast and the North Sea Ballast Water Opportunity project. It seeks to bring timely information on ballast water management (BWM) topics to its delegates in a non-commercial and highly professional manner. This year’s conference will bring together ship owners and operators, regulators, environmental scientists, marine engineers, test facilities and technology suppliers from around the world to help them better understand the regulatory environment and challenges faced by all sectors of the BWM community, to answer questions and, hopefully, to assist them in finding solutions.”

Tom Mackey’s Co-Chairman of BWEG, Dr David Wright, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland and President, Environmental Research Services will be delivering the conference opening keynote address ‘Consensus on compliance and enforcement – pipedream or possibility?’

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IMarEST, April 15, 2013