Ballast Water

Empty runs or fractional loads are not only uneconomical, but also have concrete technical drawbacks: the vessel’s centre of gravity moves higher, exposing a larger contact surface to wind and waves. This can jeopardise the stability of the ship which is why a ship takes on ballast. In the past, this was sand or stones; nowadays, it is seawater in ballast tanks. When the vessel picks up fresh cargo, it pumps an equal weight of ballast overboard. This is ecologically questionable because ballast water is teeming with organisms which then establish themselves in alien ecosystems, endangering the biological balance there.

This is why, even before any statutory regulation, Hamburg Süd’s ships exchanged their ballast water at sea during the voyage.