Science Centres: Aquatic Biodiversity and Biosecurity

Dr Graeme Inglis outlines the dive plan for a reconnaissance survey of the port of Nha Trang to researchers from the Viêt Nam Institute of Oceanography.

The spread of harmful organisms by ships and other vectors has been identified as one of the four greatest threats to the world’s oceans. The Global Ballast Water Management Programme (GloBallast) has been helping developing countries to manage this threat by providing technical assistance to enable them to implement the new International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water. Biological baseline surveys of port environments, to establish the range of native and introduced marine organisms currently present in shipping areas, are an important component of this work.

A NIWA scientist, Dr Graeme Inglis, has been helping run a training workshop on port surveys in Viêt Nam, at GloBallast’s invitation. The five-day workshop was in preparation for a baseline survey at the port of Nha Trang in early 2005. It covered aspects of survey design and implementation, and the context of global initiatives taken to manage threats from introduced marine species. About 20 delegates attended the workshop, including Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese scientists and local port authorities.

This is an important time for environmental management of ports and shipping in Viêt Nam. The Vietnamese government has recently released plans for massive expansion of its shipping ports to keep pace with the country’s anticipated export growth. Several new ports are planned along the coastline, including relocating the river ports of Ho Chi Minh City closer to the sea and construction of a major international transit port in Van Phong Bay, 70 km north of Nha Trang, at a cost of US$3.6 billion. The training provided at the GloBallast workshop will allow Vietnamese marine scientists to undertake baseline surveys in these other ports using an internationally consistent methodology and approach.

GloBallast is a joint initiative of the International Maritime Organisation, United Nations Development Programme, and the Global Environment Facility. (http://globallast.imo.org)