(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The Tokyo MoU and Paris MoU are launching a joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Ballast Water Management (BWM). From September 1 to November 30, 2025, Port State Control Officers will be checking to ensure your ships meet the mandatory requirements of the BWM Convention. Be prepared, because non-conformities could lead to a deficiency... or even detention!
Trigerred by:
Recent inspections in 2024 and 2025 have revealed common deficiencies in BWM compliance. These often involve issues with the ballast water record book, such as a lack of flag approval for electronic versions, incomplete or incorrect entries, discrepancies with operational logs, or the use of outdated record books. Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) issues are also prevalent, including failures to report malfunctions to PSC, insufficient recording of issues, systems being out of order, or a lack of adherence to contingency measures.
Furthermore, problems with the ballast water management plan itself, such as inconsistencies, missing information, or outdated details regarding the BWM method, port of registry, or designated person, have been observed.
Purpose driven:
The purpose of the campaign is to determine if ships meet the mandatory requirements for Ballast Water Management (BWM) as prescribed in the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 (BWM Convention).
This 2025 campaign has been initiated in order to promote the effective and consistent implementation of the BWM Convention. In order to determine if ships meet the requirements of the Convention, the following areas will be verified during inspections:
Proper certification for BWM Convention;
Approval and update of the Ballast Water Management Plan (BWMP);
Crew familiarisation in the implementation of the BWMP;
Ballast Water Management System approval and its operation;
Records of Ballast Water Record Book (BWRB);
Ballast water sediment management; and
Valid exemptions, if any.
The inspection campaign will be held for three months, commencing from 1 September 2025 and ending 30 November 2025. A ship will be subject to only one inspection under this CIC during the period of the campaign.
Port State Control Officers will use a pre-defined questionnaire to assess that the BWM requirements in the respective areas are met.
If any non-conformities are found, actions by the port State may vary from recording a deficiency and instructing the Master to rectify it within a certain period of time, to detaining the ship until the serious deficiencies have been rectified. Inspection results will be published on the websites of the Tokyo and Paris MoU.
You can download below the relevant checklist which will be used by the PSC officers:
Source: Paris MoU
Click HERE for more Port State Control Concentrated Inspection Campaigns
