The industry is left with fewer options for BWMS testing – Maritime Environmental Resource Center will no longer conduct Type Approval Certification testing of ballast water management systems.
MERC has served as an independent, third-party test facility for evaluating the performance of ballast water management systems (BWMSs), which have been certified by several countries around the world.
Due to flaws in regulations designed to minimize the risk of ballast water introductions of invasive species, MERC will no longer provide BWMS certification testing services. After several years of MERC efforts to ensure scientifically-sound, predictive, consistent, and transparent BWMS certification testing, it has become clear that the lack of an appropriate standardized approach and sufficient oversight in the implementation of ballast water regulations is undermining the fundamental goal of national and international policies to prevent the introduction of environmentally and economically destructive invasive species.
