The Bimco is carrying to term the definition of standard for the cleansing of the hulls of the ships in water



The shipowning association international Bimco has announced today that it is completing the definition of own standards for the cleansing of the hulls of the ships in water with the scope to avoid that the hulls are the carriers of the invasive aquatic transfer of species, to avoid that potentially harmful slags are released in water during the operations of washing of the hull and with the scope to reduce the emissions of co2. "The new standard of cleansing in water - it has anticipated Aron Sørensen, responsible Marine Environment of the Bimco - places great emphasis on the capture of that it is removed by the ship, assuring so that not there is an impact negative on the marine atmosphere. We consider that a total standard will guarantee much more transparency let alone economic and environmental advantages for the shipowners, the ports, the harbour authorities and the societies that carry out cleansing of the hulls in water". The Bimco has remembered that, in fact, the organisms that join and reproduce themselves on the hulls of the ships increase the resistance to the water and reduce until 35% the efficiency of the fuel consumptions.

The pressures are many so that the practical one of the washing of the hulls in water, already prohibited by various marine administrations, is forbidden world-wise own in order to avoid the invasive transfer of species and possible pollution. To such Sørensen purpose it has emphasized the indispensability to afford the cleansing in water of the hulls as - it has explained - there is a limited availability of dry docks that can receive very large ships as those which they transport mineral of iron or oil crude oil. To this - it has specified - the costs necessary join elevated in order to carry the ships in basins available in Asia and in order to disembark to cargos let alone the emissions of gas to produced greenhouse effect from the additional travel that the ship must carry out in order to reach the dry dock.

Moreover Sørensen has specified that, even if currently nations as Australia and New Zealand so as the States Americans of Hawaii and of California they have already adopted regulations on the biofouling, that is the incrustations of biological material that join to the hull of the ships, however without an international standard for the cleansing of the hulls the ports will have difficulty to identify which are the navigation companies that carry out a sufficient cleansing of the hulls of their ships and they make it in sufficiently effective way and sure collecting the material of it turns out of the washing. "If the shipowner does not have itself total standards - he has specified - cannot know if a society of a nation that carries out the cleansing of the hulls in water has made a good job. Moreover the harbour authorities do not have of a method common in order to estimate these societies".

Before the Bimco is profitable you notice the own new necessary standards will be but anchor some months. They are in fact still to be carried out practical tests of the standards that will be executed this year with the cooperation of a shipowner and a society specialized in the cleansing of the hulls. "In the phase in which now we find ourselves - Sørensen has explained - we must interact with experts of the field, governmental authorities, harbour scientists and authorities before being able to finalize the standards of cleansing in water". Moreover the objective of the Bimco is that these new standards are recognized by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the organism of the United Nations that regulated the marine transport, and - it has specified the shipowning organization - this process could demand from two to three years.