Fiji has acceded to six International Maritime Organisation (IMO) treaties, including important conventions covering ballast water management and the control of harmful anti-fouling systems on ships.

This brings the number of states party to the Ballast Water Management Convention to 49, with the aggregate remaining at 34.82 per cent of the world’s merchant fleet tonnage (based on available global tonnage data as at the of end February 2016).

Jitoko Tikolevu, High Commissioner of Fiji to the United Kingdom, met IMO secretary-general Kitack Lim to deposit the instruments of accession.

The treaties acceded to by Fiji are as follows:

* The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 (BWM 2004);

* The Protocol of 1978 relating to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, (MARPOL 73/78); including acceptance of Optional Annexes IV and V to MARPOL 73/78;

* The International Convention on Salvage, 1989 (SALVAGE 1989);

* The International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage, 2001 (BUNKERS 2001);

* The International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems on Ships, 2001 (AFS 2001); and

* The Convention on the International Mobile Satellite Organisation, as amended (IMSO C 1976).