Regarding the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ship's Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 (Hereinafter referred to "the BWM Convention"), Liberia Maritime Authority published MARINE OPERATIONS NOTE 02/2017.
A summary of MARINE OPERATIONS NOTE 02/2017 is as below.

1. Ships implementing only the Ballast Water Exchange (BWE) standard in Regulation D-1;
The Administration will review and approve BWM Plans and issue IBWM Certificates.
BWM Plans already approved and IBWM Certificates already issued by an authorized Recognized Organization's (RO) prior to 22 April 2017 will continue to remain valid until they expire or the ship implements the ballast water performance standard in regulation D-2, whichever is earlier.

2. Ships implementing the BWE standard in Regulation D-1 and Regulation D-2, or Regulation D-2 only;
The Administration will review and approve BWM Plans.
BWM Plans already approved by an authorized RO prior to 22 April 2017 will continue to remain valid until they expire or the ship implements the ballast water performance standard in regulation D-2, whichever is earlier.
The relevant survey and certification for IBWM Certificates is conducted by an authorized RO.

3. IBWM Certificate issued by Liberia Maritime Authority
Please send a scanned copy to ClassNK Classification Department (cld@classnk.or.jp) for confirmation of the survey schedule and the expiry date of IBWM Certificate, upon receipt of a IBWM Certificate from the Liberia Maritime Authority.

For application procedures, please contact the Technical Department of Liberia Maritime Authority (technical@liscr.com).

For further details, please refer to the attached MARINE OPERATIONS NOTE 02/2017.

(To be continued)