A COMPLETE project representative prof. Sergej Olenin presented the COMPLETE project in his lecture “The ballast water management: towards a decision support system for the Baltic Sea region” at an international conference “The Baltic Sea: Gateway or cul de sac ?” (16-18 May 2018, Lithuanian Maritime Academy, Klaipėda, Lithuania), which was arranged jointly by the SEFACIL Foundation, Lithuanian Ship Owners Association, Port of Klaipeda and other stakeholders.

COMPLETE project partners prof. Sergej Olenin and prof. Dan Minchin participated in the 10th NEOBIOTA International Conference on Biological Invasions (3-7 September 2018, Dublin, Ireland). At the conference, new directions in invasion biology were presented and discussed, e.g. development and use of databases on non-indigenous species, biofouling management, etc., which are of importance for implementation of COMPLETE.

16-18 October 2018, Puerto Madryn, Argentina. COMPLETE representative prof. Henn Ojaveer participated the 10th International Conference on Marine Bioinvasions (ICMB-X). The conference showcased the most up-to-date international evidence and best practices that can be incorporated into COMPLETE outputs and products.

COMPLETE project partnership was represented at 'Horizon scanning workshop - predicting future invasions to EU seas' organized by EC on 4-5 October in Ispra, Italy. Prof. Henn Ojaveer from University of Tartu, Estonian Marine Institute, participated this workshop, which aimed to deliver a list of ranked marine invasive alien species that should be of high-priority for risk assessment and possibly future inclusion in the Union list (EU Regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species).

Link

26 April 2018. The EU project COMPLETE (Completing management options in the Baltic Sea Region to reduce risk of invasive alien species introduction by shipping) gained flagship project status from the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) on 26th of September 2018. This demonstrates the high political relevance of ships’ ballast water and hull fouling management to reduce the risk of introduction of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens. The project’s aim to minimize this risk by the development of user-friendly tools and management options is recognized as essential. The flagship status supports conveying the relevant results and recommendations of the COMPLETE project to the policy level and contributes to ensuring that the project results are used in practice.

Status of work of COMPLETE will be presented at the upcoming HELCOM MARITIME meeting (MARITIME 18-2018) to be held on 25-27 September in Hamburg. The meeting documents will be publicly available once the meeting has been held. Link to the HELCOM meeting portal

25-26 April 2018, Riga, Latvia: The COMPLETE project team held its first regular team meeting in Riga. The new project partner LIAE (Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology), who hosted the meeting in Riga, was welcomed by COMPLETE partners. All partners presented the actual status of their project work and the following steps. Methodological approaches were discussed and sub-collaborations on certain topics were agreed. The next project meeting will be held in Gothenburg in December 2018.

5-9 March 2018, Madeira, Portugal: COMPLETE partners participated in the ICES “Working Group on Ballast and Other Ship Vectors” and “Introduction and Transfer of Marine Organisms” and presented and discussed the project at international expert level. 

http://www.ices.dk/community/groups/Pages/default.aspx#k=WGITMO

http://www.ices.dk/community/groups/Pages/default.aspx#k=WGBOSV

16-17 November 2017, Helsinki, Finland: Tasks and activities of COMPLETE were discussed in the light of the information needed by TG Ballast for the ongoing amendment of the HELCOM/OSPAR Joint Harmonized procedure on granting exemptions from ballast water treatment provisions of the 2004 International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). (https://bit.ly/2Mnq1Xn; https://bit.ly/2l7Pdos).

COMPLETE project was introduced to the 9th international Steering Committee meeting of PA Ship on 7 November 2017 in Gdansk, Poland (https://bit.ly/2JKVocL).