Small sea with high traffic - what is the biofouling potential of commercial ships in the Baltic Sea

Abstract

Despite the Baltic Sea being one of the most intensive shipping regions in the world the potential magnitude of the biofouled hulls in this region is unknown. This study estimated the biofouling load to Baltic Sea Region (BSR) based on the wetted surface area (WSA) method with regard to country, ship type and donor bioregion. WSA flux reached 656 km², of which 86% was associated with ships operating inside and 14% was WSA flux brought by ships from outside of the Baltic Sea. Most of the WSA was transported to Swedish, Finnish and Danish ports as well. The highest WSA flux was assigned to roll-on/roll-off, passenger and general cargo ships. The high biofouling potential in BSR indicates a potential high risk to the environment and, therefore there is an urgent need for appropriate guidelines to be introduced into daily use by the commercial shipping community.

Keywords:

• Wetted surface area
• hull fouling
• non-indigenous species
• biofouling regulations
• ship vector

Acknowledgements

Part of the results of this paper was previously presented as an output of the COMPLETE project in the document Proposal for a Regional Baltic Biofouling Management Roadmap published on https://balticcomplete.com/. We would like to thank to Dr. Halina Kendzierska and Mrs. Natalia Gintowt for contribution to the visualization of maps.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted within the project COMPLETE – Completing management options in the Baltic Sea Region to reduce risk of invasive species introduction by shipping, co-financed by the European Union’s funding Programme Interreg Baltic Sea Region in 2017–2020 (European Regional Development Fund) and by Polish Ministry of Education and Science financial resources for science in the years 2017–2020 (grant No. 3859/INTERREG BSR/17/2018 for an International co-financed project).