Invasive aquatic species are one of the four greatest threats to the world’s oceans, and can cause extremely severe environmental, economic and public health impacts. The GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Partnerships Programme is assisting developing countries to reduce the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens in ships’ ballast water and implement the IMO Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention.

Watch: Invaders From the Sea - the harmful organisms transferred in ships' ballast water

The GloBallast Project is an outstanding example of direct, large-scale action taken by IMO together with other international entities, to address a global threat to the health of the world’s oceans, by further improving the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of shipping and reducing its negative impact on the marine ecosystems.

This film gives a unique insight into an important environmental issue: the transfer of harmful organisms in ships' ballast water. Filmed by the internationally renowned BBC Wildvision, this amazing story looks at how this phenomenon is affecting our coasts and millions of lives around the world and the measures taken by the global community to fight against these alien stowaways.