. Unwanted aquatic organisms The problem of unwanted aquatic organisms is easily stated but not so easily resolved. A number of countries have expressed concern about the arrival in their coastal waters of non-native marine organisms, transported in the ballast water of visiting ships. The issue was first raised in IMO by Australia and New Zealand, but other countries have also identified the problem and joined a fast growing group of nations which wish to see the introduction of tighter controls. Faced with the development of a series of national or local rules, IMO adopted an Assembly resolution in late 1997 with advice for port states, flag states, shipowners and crew members on ballast management at sea and in port. ICS participated fully in the discussions, and gave its support to the final text, subsequently working with Intertanko to produce a Model Ballast Water Management Plan to provide additional assistance to shipping companies. IMO has now embarked down the tortuous path of trying to merge quarantine controls on living creatures, always the concern of an individual state, with a universal pollution control through a new MARPOL annex. Enforcement of such an annex by flag states will not be easy, and it is difficult to see how it will guarantee protection to a coastal state. The assumption must therefore be that coastal states will continue to establish and enforce national quarantine regulations, without reference to others. The unwelcome prospect is that ships may be faced with contradictory obligations. The fundamental concern for the shipping industry is that the transfer of ballast water at sea, a superficially simple but potentially hazardous practice, should not become established as the principal solution to the problem. ICS will continue to encourage governments to concentrate on this issue in its entirety, taking account of the safety implications as well as the need to protect coastal waters from alien forms of marine life. .