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December 31, 2025
Dear Shipping Agents and Interested Parties:
Please ensure that information about the following items is distributed to vessels arriving at California ports. This letter addresses:
- General Reporting Information
- Annual Vessel Reporting Form (AVRF)
- Ballast Water Management Report (BWMR)
- Notifications and Alternatives
- Golden Mussels
- Vessel Inspections
- Data Summaries
- Regulations
Please find a detailed description of each topic below:
GENERAL REPORTING INFORMATION
Annual Vessel Reporting Form (AVRF)
The Marine Invasive Species Program Annual Vessel Reporting Form (AVRF) must be submitted once per calendar year and at least 24 hours prior to a vessel’s first arrival at a California port. The AVRF must be submitted through the web-based platform https://www.MISP.IO. Note that the AVRF can be submitted earlier during the calendar year (e.g., submitted in January for the first arrival in March), if desired, and can be submitted by anyone affiliated with the vessel (e.g., ownership, management, crew, agent).
Ballast Water Management Report (BWMR)
All vessels that arrive at California ports must submit the Ballast Water Management Report (BWMR) 24 hours prior to arrival at each port in California. If a vessel’s voyage is less than 24 hours, the report shall be submitted upon departure from the last port of call prior to arrival. If ballast water management or discharge information changes for an arrival, a corrected report must be submitted.
Vessels moving from one California port to another are required to submit a separate Ballast Water Management Report for each port arrival. For reporting purposes, the following places are recognized as separate ports by the Marine Invasive Species Program.
- Humboldt Bay Harbor (includes Eureka)
- Port of Sacramento
- Port of Stockton
- Port of San Francisco (includes all San Francisco Bay area anchorage locations)
- Carquinez (includes all marine oil terminals and anchorages in the Carquinez Strait, extending east to the Antioch Bridge)
- Port of Richmond
- Port of Oakland
- Port of Alameda
- Port of Redwood City
- Moss Landing Harbor
- Monterey Harbor
- Santa Barbara Harbor
- Port of Hueneme
- Marina Del Rey Harbor
- El Segundo
- Los Angeles/Long Beach Port Complex (includes all anchorage locations within the breakwater, the Port of Long Beach, and the Port of Los Angeles
- Avalon/Catalina
- Port of San Diego (includes Point Loma)
California requires vessels to use the U.S. Coast Guard Ballast Water Management report (OMB No. 1625-0069)
Notifications And Alternatives
Vessel owners or operators that are unable to submit an AVRF via MISP.IO due to logistic or technological challenges should contact the Marine Invasive Species Program as soon as possible to inquire about an alternative to submit in another format.
Any questions, inquiries, or notifications of an inoperable ballast water treatment system should be sent to cslc.misp@slc.ca.gov. Staff will respond accordingly.
GOLDEN MUSSELS
The highly invasive freshwater golden mussel was detected in Stockton in October 2024, and in several other locations since then (please see the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Golden Mussels website for an up-to-date map). Our MISP staff have created an outreach flier to share with vessel personnel to raise awareness, describe what the mussels look like, and provide instructions on how to report a sighting.
VESSEL INSPECTIONS
Please be aware that our field operations staff board and inspect at least 25 percent of all vessel arrivals in California. During these inspections, our staff assess compliance with the California Marine Invasive Species Act and all associated regulations, provide outreach regarding California’s biofouling and ballast water requirements, and answer any questions the crew may have. If you have any questions about our inspections, please contact us at cslc.misp@slc.ca.gov.
DATA SUMMARIES
Commission staff have created an interactive vessel traffic and ballast water management data dashboard for the public to use. The interactive data dashboard is updated quarterly and can be found at https://misp-cslc.hub.arcgis.com/.
Please visit https://www.slc.ca.gov/misp/ for more information about the Marine Invasive Species Program and the regulations we administer.
REGULATIONS
The Commission adopted emergency ballast water management regulations on June 16, 2025. The emergency rule requires vessels with ballast water sourced from waters with a measured salinity of less than 18 parts per thousand (ppt; i.e., 18 grams of salt per kilogram of water) to conduct ballast water exchange prior to discharging at California’s fresh and brackish water ports (i.e., Sacramento, Stockton, or Carquinez). This requirement is in addition to meeting existing California ballast water discharge performance standards. Please see California Code of Regulations Section 2293(b) for more details.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please contact Chris Scianni with any questions at cslc.misp@slc.ca.gov or 562.499.6390.
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