NEMWI’s Great Ships Initiative (GSI) hosted a “Train-the-Trainer” workshop in conjunction with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) GloBallast Partnerships Programme from October 19 to 21. Participants received hands-on practical training on the sampling and analysis of ballast water collected from ships. Among the workshop participants were port state control officers and biologists from Argentina, Bahamas, Chile, Colombia, Jamaica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. The workshop was held in Superior, Wisconsin, home of the GSI’s state-of-the-art ballast water management system testing facility. Participants also boarded Algoma Central Corporation’s MV Tim S. Dool, at the Holcim Dock in Duluth, Minnesota. This particular vessel is one of several fitted with ballast discharge sampling ports as part of the GSI’s Ship Discharge Monitoring Project. The program included a tour and instructional briefing by the Tim S. Dool’s Third Mate on the ship’s ballast system and available apertures through which sampling could occur.
For more information contact Allegra Cangelosi, Director, Great Ships Initiative.