As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio

Those who have been following our invasive species coverage over the last couple of years are likely familiar with the term ballast water, the water stored inside of cargo ships that keep them level and stable.

Since most of the ships entering the Great Lakes are coming from overseas, the vast majority of Ontario’s invasive species have entered our waterways through these ballast systems, bilging into our lakes as ships move in. In fact, the ClearSeas organization that, globally, over 7,000 aquatic species are transferred in ballast water every hour of every day – causing one new invasion to occur every 9 weeks!

To help combat this problem, the Canadian government has introduced an update to its ballast water regs for the Great Lakes that will require vessels entering the Great Lakes to transition to modern ballast water systems that cleanse water of organisms before release and transition to the new water systems for vessels travelling only within the Great Lakes

Prior to this regulation, ships were required to switch their ballast water while in salt water, drastically reducing the number of saltwater invasive species entering our system, but still allowing organisms to transfer from lake to lake.

This new regulation sets to put an end to this, officially coming into law in 2025.