Abstract: Shipping facilitates the transportation of over 90 % of the world’s commodities and eventually transfers ~10 billion tons of ballast water (Ghosh and Rubly, 2017). Recently the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BWMC) (IMO, 2007) came into force, which aimed at reducing the spread of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens (HAOPs) with ships' ballast water. The monitoring of ballast water is a crucial part to understand the diversity of organisms, including pathogens (Darling and Frederick, 2018). After detection of HAOP, the crucial step in ballast water management is a warning signal service (Early et al., 2016). One of the solutions could be a combination of rapid detection methods and mobilized data using an open approach. The specific goals of the early warning are firstly to warn vessels to prevent the loading of ballast water when critical biological conditions occur in ports and surrounding areas i.e. outbreaks of HAOP. Secondly, to warn a port, environmental and health authorities when invasive species or pathogens are present in ports or surrounding areas to enable management activities (Magaletti et al., 2017). Early warning system with risk assessment tools can be integrated into online systems, such as AquaNIS (AquaNIS, 2021), for timely communication of findings of HAOPs to all relevant authorities in countries and international shipping companies to ensure that there is sufficient time for the response measures and the roles of all actors are clearly defined. The development of communication mechanism integrating rapid ballast water sample analysis and an online data platform is crucial for the prevention and management of the spread of HAOP.