Biofouling on an Offshore Rig in the Baltic Sea

Abstract

Biofouling is called “lessons from nature”. Currently, governments and industry spend more than 5.7 billion USD annually to control unwanted marine biofouling, aquatic flora and fauna on submerged construction leading to various technical, economical, and ecological problems. In turn, the Baltic Sea is defined as a “time machine” for the future coastal ocean, as processes occurring in the Baltic Sea are related to future changes. Our study describes the biofouling community at 12 sites located at different depths on the legs of the “Baltic Beta” oil platform that resulted in finding a maximum of 1,300 individuals on 400 cm2. We analyzed: spatial distribution of dominant marine organisms living on a steel platform surface, their abundance and mass. Our work showed no significant difference in the benthic samples mass among different depths or cardinal directions of the rig columns. Our research can help to predict offshore biofouling on other devices in the Baltic Sea, to control invasive species and to estimate environmental load.