Relation between the ship´s biofouling and the places they come from: Case study of a merchant ship in the Bay of Biscay

Abstract

Biofouling is the accumulation of aquatic organisms on surfaces immersed into the water such it could be the hull of a ship. What is more, biofouling generates several inconveniences in the development of a ship’s operation. The first one arises when they act as a vehicle for the transfer of possible invasive exotic species, which can also travel through ballast water from one region to another and creates what is known as biological contamination. The second is the decrease in speed caused by the friction which affects the performance during transit. Under this problematic situation, a case of study has been done in a merchant ship in the Bay of Biscay to predict which invasive species could have been attached to the hull according to the vessel’s voyages and to assess the most affected parts of the hull by biofouling.