A partnership between the United Nations and global shipping companies will attempt to control the overseas travel of unwelcome invasive species, the international agency announced last week.
The collaboration, known as the Global Industry Alliance, will encourage the shipping industry to share approaches on limiting the number of invasive species transferred in ballast water, the leading cause of introducing a marine alien species.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Global Environment Facility (GEF), and four private shipping corporations form the alliance. The groups hope to develop cost-effective ballast water treatment technologies, such as new efforts to create a "ballast-free" ship, a joint statement said.
"Without a doubt, this is the first of its type [for marine invasive species control]," said Andrew Hudson, the UNDP principal technical adviser on international water issues. "It's a unique public-private partnership. For the IMO, there's hope in principle for replication along other shipping issues."
Unloaded cargo vessels fill up with ballast water to provide stability on the high seas. The process enables plants and animals to enter the ship, where they are stored until the vessel deposits the ballast water at its destination.
The IMO estimates that cargo vessels carry 10 billion tons of ballast water across the globe each year and transfer more than 3,000 plant species daily.
Harmful non-native species, such as the comb jelly in the Black Sea and zebra mussel in the U.S. Great Lakes, have overtaken habitats and fundamentally altered the marine areas' ecological balance. Once established, alien species are often impossible to remove.
Researchers from The Nature Conservancy published the first global assessment of marine invasive species last year in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The review counted 329 marine invasive species, with 84 percent of the world's 232 marine ecoregions having at least one species present.
The study found the shipping industry to be the most common pathway for invasive marine species. An estimated 228 marine species are transported through ballast water or on a vessel's exterior, and about 57 percent of those species are considered harmful when introduced into non-native ecosystems.
The collaboration, known as the Global Industry Alliance, will encourage the shipping industry to share approaches on limiting the number of invasive species transferred in ballast water, the leading cause of introducing a marine alien species.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Global Environment Facility (GEF), and four private shipping corporations form the alliance. The groups hope to develop cost-effective ballast water treatment technologies, such as new efforts to create a "ballast-free" ship, a joint statement said.
"Without a doubt, this is the first of its type [for marine invasive species control]," said Andrew Hudson, the UNDP principal technical adviser on international water issues. "It's a unique public-private partnership. For the IMO, there's hope in principle for replication along other shipping issues."
Unloaded cargo vessels fill up with ballast water to provide stability on the high seas. The process enables plants and animals to enter the ship, where they are stored until the vessel deposits the ballast water at its destination.
The IMO estimates that cargo vessels carry 10 billion tons of ballast water across the globe each year and transfer more than 3,000 plant species daily.
Harmful non-native species, such as the comb jelly in the Black Sea and zebra mussel in the U.S. Great Lakes, have overtaken habitats and fundamentally altered the marine areas' ecological balance. Once established, alien species are often impossible to remove.
Researchers from The Nature Conservancy published the first global assessment of marine invasive species last year in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The review counted 329 marine invasive species, with 84 percent of the world's 232 marine ecoregions having at least one species present.
The study found the shipping industry to be the most common pathway for invasive marine species. An estimated 228 marine species are transported through ballast water or on a vessel's exterior, and about 57 percent of those species are considered harmful when introduced into non-native ecosystems.