The Maritime Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) at its fifty-first session in April 2004, approved a programme for the development of guidelines and procedures for uniform implementation of the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention, listed in Conference resolution 1 including additional guidance required but not listed in the resolution. The programme was further expanded at the fifty-third session of the MEPC in July 2005 to develop and adopt 14 sets of Guidelines, the last one being adopted by resolution MEPC.173(58) in October 2008. This 2009 edition reproduces the text of the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' ballast water and sediments, the four Conference resolutions, and the 14 sets of Guidelines developed and adopted by the MEPC of the Organization