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Towards A Legal Framework For A Single National Ballast Water Management Scheme In Australia, Ben M. Tsamenyi, Stuart B. Kaye, Alison Castle

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Introduced Marine Pests (IMPs) pose a serious threat to marine biodiversity in Australia. There are many ways pests are introduced into the marine environment. The major vectors for IMPs are ballast water, ship fouling, accidental introductions due to mariculture and deliberate introduction. The focus of this paper is on the administrative and legislative response to the introduction of IMPs through ballast water. Historically, ballast water accounts for only 15-20 per cent of the invasive marine species found in Australia. Ballast water is, however, becoming the major threatening vector in the last two decades. The current ballast water legislative and administrative …