The Canadian Department of Transport has proposed new ballast water regulations to deal with invasive aquatic species that go beyond anything on the U.S. side.
http://canadagazette.gc.ca/partI/2005/20050611/html/regle6-e.html
Jen Nalbone of Great Lakes United has offered the analysis below. "NOBOB" vessels are those with no ballast on board; but these ships often contain invasives in the "unpumpable slop" in the bottom of the ballast tanks, and so many ships are said to be NOBOB that U.S. regulations are riddled with holes.
It's not the answer, yet, but it's encouraging that political pressure is driving even transport agencies to propose doing something about ballast water threats.
Within the regulations are proposals for a ballast water standard and proposals to regulate NOBOB vessels (if a NOBOB vessel takes on water and plans to discharge in Canadian waters it will be required to expose residuals to salinity conditions equivalent to ballast water exchange). A serious concern is that the ballast water standard is defined as the International Maritime Organization’s standard…while this is a good step and goes beyond what regulations the U.S. is enforcing, the IMO standard is widely considered not protective enough for the Great Lakes. Lacking from these regulations are aggressive deadlines to phase out ballast water exchange and NOBOB management, and to phase in the ballast water standard for all ships.