Croatia is one of the first countries to be keeping track of the amount and type of ballast water being discharged by ships into the Adriatic Sea, and prohibits the discharging of ballast in ports if it contains harmful microorganisms, which makes it a leader in protecting the sea against ballast and a leading partner in implementing the global project "GloBallast Partnership 2007-2012".
This was heard at a two-day founding meeting of the National Forum for the Implementation of the "GloBallast Partnership 2007-2012" project, which opened in the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure on Thursday. The project was launched globally by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
Praising Croatia for joining the project during its pilot phase in 2000-2004, the project's leader and IMO representative, Jose Matheickal, said that a regional partnership could be of great help to countries in reducing the transmission of harmful organisms through ballast water, which is the aim of the project.
Croatia is on the right track and can certainly serve as a model to other countries, all the more so because on 1 September 2007 it became one of the first European countries to start implementing the Rules on Ballast, which regulate the issue of ballast handling in Croatia's ecological and fisheries protection zone, territorial sea and inland waterways.
Assistant Minister for Maritime Transport Mario Babić said that the Rules on Ballast were just one of the measures Croatia was taking in this area, adding that Croatia had also initiated regional cooperation among Adriatic countries, which he said would submit a proposal to the IMO to declare the Adriatic as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA). (Hina)