Abstract
This report reviews the available scientific research and industry information regarding biofouling, invasive aquatic species (IAS), and biofouling management in new and emerging maritime industries with offshore structures and infrastructure: 1) renewable energy generators (wind, tidal, wave, solar); 2) pipelines, cables, pipes; 3) monitoring stations and buoys; 4) mining; and 5) mobile associated equipment (support vessels, ROV, AUV). Knowledge gaps are identified and recommendations are presented to guide future efforts to limit or reduce biofouling and expansion of IAS.
Comprehensive biofouling management plans (BFMP) for infrastructure or vehicles of maritime industries are important tools to mitigate risks from biofouling, as biofouling causes many problems and issues for industries and the environment, has significant economic costs to control, and can indirectly (through the spreading of IAS) have far-reaching negative effects on livelihoods and damage environmental and human health. Biofouling causes (and can exacerbate) corrosion, material fatigue, and results in increased drag, fuel consumption and associated emissions, thus contributing significantly to global climate change (GCC) (Poloczanska and Butler, 2010). By way of example, authors from the US Department for Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering (Schultz et al., 2011) estimated that the economic impact of biofouling for the US DDG-51 fleet1 alone was US$56 million per year. Historic measures to mitigate biofouling have been seen to have unintended impacts on non-target species, food security and human health, and innovative solutions are therefore needed.
In addition to the issues described above, biofouling can also result in the translocation of non-native species to new areas and regions. Mineur et al. (2012) (among others) called these ‘invasive alien species’; however, the acronym IAS in the IMO 2023 Guidelines on Biofouling Management refers specifically to ‘invasive aquatic species’, which is defined as ‘non-native species to a particular ecosystem which may pose threats to human, animal and plant life, economic and cultural activities, and the aquatic environment’ (IMO, 2023). Therefore, in this report IAS refers to invasive aquatic species and the term invasive alien species (which includes terrestrial species) will be referred to as non-native invasive species (NIS) for clarity.
IAS may change the ecosystem, contribute to biodiversity loss and disease and parasite and pathogen infestation in local marine communities. As a result, UN Member States agreed on actions in their Agenda 2030 against these impacts with their Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life below water) and their inclusion in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention, the IMO Biofouling Guidelines, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Very recently, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reported that invasive species in general contributed to more than half of all global species extinctions and recommended options for management and governance responses (Roy et al., 2023). Thus, a biofouling management plan detailing how biofouling can and is being managed is an essential tool as a minimum for every maritime industry to support these actions. In shipping, progress has been made even before Agenda 2030 with the adoption of MEPC 62/24/ Add.1, Annex 26 Resolution MEPC.207(62) in 2011, which consisted of guidelines on the control and management of ship biofouling to minimize the transfer of IAS via the most common vectors. These guidelines were subsequently updated and amended in 2023 (Resolution MEPC.377(80)). Despite this, however, there are currently no biofouling management guidelines on IAS available from the IMO which deal with elements of the maritime industry beyond the included definition of a ‘ship’,3 e.g., new and emerging maritime industries such as wind turbines.