# Trends in Compliance Monitoring Devices (CMDs) in Ships' Ballast Water Treatment Systems
###### Abstract
Going forward, rapid result devices will remain ideal in ship and port time management, particularly with a move towards electronic ballast water record books which also serve as an important forecasting tool for compliance as such data can be pre-delivered to the electronic records of the Port State for reaction prior to ship arrival, that way major issues can be dealt with while the ship is _en voyage_, for pre-emptive national security measures. m +
Footnote †: Abstract  
The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) in 2024, gives us at least 7 years of data to analyze accounting for technology samples in marine and ships' ballast water monitoring and forecasting. Marine technology played a crucial role in closing the gap between the adoption of the Convention and its coming into force, a 13-year gap that involved world-wide experimentation and investment in marine technologies which had to be approved for compliance by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as well as Port States. Compliance Monitoring Devices (CMDs) with rapid results have been generally used in providing marine environmental invasion controls and have been used by Port States to enforce compliance in ballast water management. Qualitative, regulatory and quantitative data have been synthesized in this study from select experiments to test for compliance monitoring success. Going forward, rapid result devices will remain ideal in ship and port time management, particularly with a move towards electronic ballast water record books which also serve as an important forecasting tool for compliance as such data can be pre-delivered to the electronic records of the Port State for reaction prior to ship arrival, that way major issues can be dealt with while the ship is _en voyage_, for pre-emptive national security measures. m +
Footnote †: Abstract  
The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) was initially adopted after a myriad of efforts by the unity of many governments under the auspices of the United Nations, IMO agency [1] because of the threatening impact from marine aquatic invasions or aquatic invasive species (AIS) and other organisms that were being introduced into many foreign ports through ships' ballast water tanks. Commercial shipping, particularly prior to modern ballast treatment technology, was identified as a direct vector to introducing AIS. In a recent study where scientists measured the pressure of propagule of AIS, data were collected especially from volumes of discharges of ballast water as it was established that AIS could come through ballast water discharges from foreign regions, some AIS could come from resting egg states of various organisms that may rest in the ship's sediment at the bottom of the ballast tanks or that AIS could be a result of bio-fouling on wetted areas of the ship's hull that has AIS clinging to its surfaces. While their experiment also observed that some AIS may not survive the stress of the voyage, those that do survive and thrive may threaten the marine environment by depleting fisheries, causing a loss of biodiversity and impacting resources that have direct influence on human health and the economies affected [2] Ballastwater contaminants are not limited to living species only, there are also concerns that ballast water may also cause an introduction of, for instance, heavy metals into the environment which can have a harmful effect on the quality of water resources [3]. The dangers of unchecked ballast water being transported around the world resulted in the adoption of the BWM on 13 February 2004 and its subsequent date of global force application on 8 September 2017 [4].