Members may recall that the ICS Secretariat previously invited shipowners/operators to provide feedback on Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) using a Ballast Water Management System Feedback form. Following comments provided by members in early 2020 it was agreed that an online version of the questionnaire should be developed to promote greater feedback. Shipowners/operators/Ships can now provide in confidence and direct to the ICS Secretariat details of ship specific BWMS issues by completing the online questionnaire provided and accessed via the following link:

 https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LDNSQRV

The questionnaire can be accessed and completed as many times as necessary and should be used to report each ship specific issue experienced with respect to purchasing, installing, maintaining or operating Ballast Water Management Systems.

The information kindly provided will be used by ICS to inform future internal and external discussions and importantly to support possible future submissions to IMO as part of the agreed IMO Experience Building Phase. It will be observed when accessing the questionnaire that there is a request for the IMO number of the ship concerned and name of operator, this data is for internal ICS information only to facilitate analysis and prevent double counting and will NOT be shared with any third parties. Provision of the ship and system specific information requested is essential if ICS is to be able to provide effective data-based submissions to IMO to facilitate any necessary future regulatory changes to the BWM Convention and BWMS Code.