GREAT SHIPS INITIATIVE

Project Background
Launched in July of 2006, the Great Ships Initiative (GSI) is a cooperative effort between the Great Lakes maritime industry, non-governmental organizations, federal agencies, and academia to accelerate the development and installation of technology on ships to prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive species into the Great Lakes.

The role of the Great Ships Initiative is to accelerate the development of ballast water treatment technologies by providing a variety of assistance to those companies doing research and development in this area.  After workable technologies are tested and verified, the Great Ships Initiative will work with ship owners to accelerate the installation of ballast treatment technology on their Great Lakes vessels.  Finally, the Great Ships Initiative will be partnering with U.S. and Canadian Great Lakes ports to establish a region-wide harbor monitoring program.  With such a program in place, it might be possible to detect and control the spread of new species.

While certain aspects of the project are "virtual," in that scientific expertise is being tapped no matter its location, the project's lab space and testing center is located in Duluth-Superior harbor and is being jointly managed by the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota.  Overall project management is being provided by the Northeast-Midwest Institute of Washington, DC.

The project managers are overseen by a board of directors, which consists of twenty representatives of Great Lakes ports, shipping companies, municipalities, state governments, federal agencies and environmental organizations.

Funding
As of February, 2008, the following amounts have been contributed to fund the project:

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