Page 46: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2020)

SHIp MAINTENANCE Biofouling & layed up ships

COVID 19 & BioFouling:

Advice for Laying Up Your Ships

By Dr. Geoffrey Swain iofouling control measures for ed, the ecology of the different immersed late the waters at levels where any free ships are usually selected to parts of the ship, the biofouling control space will be colonized, and all immersed

Bmatch their operational profiles, methods that have been applied or in use, surfaces of a ship become potential habi- and so what happens when constant ser- the methods available to remove fouling, tats. The world’s oceans may be divided vice ships become idle for prolonged pe- and the long term costs and implications into polar, subpolar, temperate, subtropi- riods or operate at slower service speeds? associated with biofouling. cal and tropical regions (Figure 1). Bio-

Will they become vulnerable to fouling, Biofouling occurs due to the presence of fouling is typically more aggressive in and what measures can be taken to reduce the mobile propagating stages of marine warmer waters and with today’s satellite the risk? These questions can best be an- organisms that would normally colonize observations we are able to monitor his- swered by understanding the biology of rocky shores or other hard substrates. At toric and real time ocean productivity and the waters in which the vessels are locat- certain times of the year they will popu- we can identify the times of year when

Figure 1. The near coastal areas of the world’s oceans have been classed into 66 large, transnational marine ecosystems, known as the large marine ecosystems (LMEs). Taken from World

Ocean Review Living with the Oceans. 5 Coasts – 2017 46 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • May 2020