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Are your vessels ready to arrive in Australian territorial waters?

Australia is known for its beautiful waters and biodiversity, and from 15 June 2022, Australia will introduce new requirements to preserve its wildlife even better. Aligned with the IMO guidelines in the making, but making headway by introducing their own local set of regulations, Australia will introduce a new set of regulations and requirements in June 2022.

So, what does that mean to you? If you are a vessel operator calling Australian ports, you will be subjected to stricter requirements when it comes to having a plan for how you intend to handle your biofouling and the execution of such plan.

As an underwater service provider, this is something that is dear to our hearts at C-Leanship. We understand the challenges vessel owners come across when facing such requirements and the needs to perform regular inspections and cleanings of your hulls and niche areas, not to mention the documentation of this. We also understand the challenges of staying up to date on current regulations introduced globally, and at individual country-level, which is the very reason for this blog post.

With this blog post, we wish to help you understand what is required from you and invite you in for a talk about how we can help you do what is required from you. When reading the following, try and ask yourself these questions.

How often, and how, do you do inspections and cleanings today?

How are these documented? What will be required from you going forward when you call Australia? Can your current supplier satisfy these requirements?

So, as promised, let’s dive into the very relevant and immediate new regulation. The following is taken from the Australia Government website

The Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment has announced new requirements for managing biofouling on international vessels arriving in Australia will begin on 15 June 2022.

Operators of all vessels subject to biosecurity control will be required to provide information on how biofouling has been managed prior to arriving in Australian territorial seas. This information will need to be reported through the department’s Maritime Arrivals Reporting System (MARS).

The pre-arrival report will require the following as per Biosecurity Amendment (Biofouling Management) Regulations 2021:

  1. Details of any inspections of the vessel for biofouling, cleaning of biofouling or treatment for biofouling undertaken before the vessel arrives in Australian territory;
  2. Details of any inspections of the vessel for biofouling, cleaning of biofouling or treatment for biofouling intended while the vessel is in Australian territory;
  3. Practices included in any plan of biofouling management for the vessel that is currently in use; and
  4. Details of the voyage history of the vessel in the past 12 months.

The department will use the information to target vessel interventions.

This will allow more efficient use of resources and statutory powers to assess and inspect vessels, and more effective response to unacceptable biosecurity risks associated with biofouling.

Vessel operators will receive less intervention for biofouling if they comply with one of the following three accepted biofouling management practices:

  1. Implementation of an effective biofouling management plan; or
  2. Cleaned all biofouling within 30 days prior to arriving in Australian territory; or
  3. Implementation of an alternative biofouling management method pre-approved by the department.

A vessel operator that has not applied one of the three accepted biofouling management practices will be subject to further questions and assessment of the biosecurity risk associated with biofouling on the vessel.

C-Leanship is ready to offer you highly efficient and necessary underwater services using ROV Technology in both Busan and Singapore.

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