Owner claims after ballast water management plan fails new rules

Failure to keep a proper onboard record of regulatory and legislative changes can have costly consequences for shipowners and their intermediaries, as evidenced by a claim recently handled by the International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC). The crew of a ship which frequently traded to US ports found themselves in contravention of state legislation when they conducted de-ballasting operations en route to California, more than 50 nautical miles out from the California coast. Such an operation had been permissible – and had indeed been performed by the crew – under the regulations in force when the ship had previously traded to California. But, on this occasion, such deballasting was in violation of new regulations which had entered into force in July 2017, requiring ships entering from international waters to deballast more than 200 nautical miles from the coast of California.