Biofouling Prevention Protocol in Australia Australia has instituted a voluntary biofouling prevention protocol for vessels of less than 25 meters in length. The protocol recommends, among other things: (1) cleaning the vessel's hull within one month prior to arrival in Australia; (2) applying antifouling paint within one year prior to arrival in Australia; or (3) arranging for the vessel to be hauled out and cleaned within one week of arrival in Australia. Plans call for the protocol to eventually become mandatory, but no date has been set for this change. Information Gathering by California Recently, California has been the most active governmental unit as regards the biofouling issue. In February 2007, in its report to the state legislature on its marine invasive species program, the State Lands Commission (SLC) discussed at length the biofouling issue and its role as a potential vector for introduction of non-indigenous species (NIS) into California waters. The report noted that the "most difficult challenge to evaluating NIS risk and for developing management recommendations was the limited amount of baseline information available on fouling and NIS across the types of vessels that regularly operate in California." The report then recommended that the legislature authorize the SLC to develop and adopt regulations to minimize NIS release; to expand biological research to characterize the NIS risk posed by commercial chip fouling; and to collect information from vessels that call in California on those factors that influence fouling accumulation, such as vessel movement patterns and maintenance practices. The California Legislature, without noticeable hesitation, provided the SLC with the sought-for authority in legislation adopted eight months later. The legislation, Assembly Bill No. 740, amends the California Marine Invasive Species Act, in pertinent part, to require owners and operators of large commercial vessels to provide hull condition information to the SLC as requested. On January 28, 2008, the SLC issued form letters to shipping agents throughout the State of California advising of the new reporting requirement and asking the shipping agents to forward the information to vessel owners and operators which they represent. Attached to the form letter is a copy of AB 740 and a copy of the Hull Husbandry Reporting Form. The Hull Husbandry Reporting Form consists of four pages to be completed by the vessel owner or operator and three pages of instructions. Summary and Recommendation It is unclear at this point what use California will make of the hull husbandry information that it has begun to gather. It is also unclear what measures the United States and other port states may attempt to impose on ships to address potential biofouling of hulls. What is clear is that an issue first noted over 150 years ago has garnered the attention of the IMO and a variety of other jurisdictions. Ship owners and operators and their legal and trade representatives would be welladvised to engage on this issue in a timely and responsible manner. Prompt and thoughtful action at the international level may well forestall for hull biofouling the counter-productive hodgepodge of measures that the industry now faces with regard to ballast water management.
Maritime Reporter & Engineering News
Photo courtesy of Statoil
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