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The effectiveness of several commercial antifouling treatments at reducing biofouling on finfish aquaculture cages in B ritish C olumbia
Author(s) -
Edwards Courtney D,
Pawluk Kylee A,
Cross Stephen F
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
aquaculture research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2109
pISSN - 1355-557X
DOI - 10.1111/are.12380
Subject(s) - biofouling , aquaculture , biology , fouling , biomass (ecology) , pulp and paper industry , fishery , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , engineering , genetics , membrane
Biofouling in finfish aquaculture is an important issue because copper based antifoulants contribute to marine pollution and biofouling management incurs heavy costs to the industry. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness five treatments (non‐biocidal: D yneema, N etpolish, A quacoating and T horn D ; biocidal using cuprous oxide: N etrex) as compared with an untreated nylon net. After 8 months, effectiveness was determined by quantifying changes in: per cent net occlusion, per cent cover of major fouling groups, and biomass. Only one non‐biocidal treatment performed better than the control in one performance index ( D yneema had lower biomass), and overall, the copper treatment was most effective. The results from this study demonstrated that the effectiveness of copper treatments will continue to be a barrier to the implementation of non‐biocidal antifoulants, and that more research is needed to develop effective, non‐biocidal antifoulant coatings for aquaculture operations.