The slow international progress on regulating the
discharge of alien marine species in ballast water in
nation’s ports,and the lack of any global system to
monitor or enforce compliance,has led to the unilateral
development of national regulations. Australia,Canada,
Chile,Israel,New Zealand and the US,or sub-national
jurisdictions within these countries,have developed or
are developing ballast water legislation. Two recent
developments are the mandatory Australian Ballast
Water Management Requirements that came into effect
on 1 July 2001 and the Brazilian Resolution RDC 217 of
November 2001,which requires ships’ masters to
complete an IMO ballast water reporting form and
provides for its substantiation by ballast sampling.