Antifouling Aquaculture Net
July 8th, 2008 by AndrewBiofouling presents a severe operational problem to aquaculture.
On fish cages, it restricts water flow through netting which reduces the supply of dissolved oxygen and the removal of excess feed and waste products.
A large mass of fouling can compete with the cultured species for food and space, and can overwhelm flotation capacity.
Current metal-based antifoulants are undesirable for aquaculture because of possible adverse environmental effects, and consumer concerns that may jeopardise market image.
Commercially available, but biodegradable compounds, or naturally occurring antifoulants extracted from marine organisms, may provide an acceptable solution by offering broad spectrum activity, and in the case of natural antifoulants, acting via chemical deterrence rather than toxicity.
Commercialisation of antifouling technology other than paints is still in its infancy, and few field trials are reported in the literature.
Although there are many antifouling agents and compositions presently available, the methods typically used to protect an object from fouling in an aqueous environment involve applying some form of protective coating to the surface of the object.
Unfortunately, this approach is not suitable for all applications and there is a need for other means of protecting such objects from microbial- or macro-fouling.
New polymer compositions have been developed that contain antifouling agents which have surprising broad-spectrum antifouling characteristics over prolonged periods and at lower concentrations than were previously believed possible.
Synthetic antifouling agents belonging to the families of isothiazolones, furanones, or combinations thereof have been found to be effective. This invention consists of an antifouling polymer comprising an isothiazolone or one or more furanone antifouling agents, the polymer capable of maintaining broad-spectruin antifouling activity for an extended period. The polymer is used to form a thread which may then be incorporated as part of the thread structure of a multi-stranded netting material.
The discovery was made by researchers associated with the Aquaculture Cooperative Research Centre.
One of the patent documents related to the invention may be accessed here.
Tags: antifouling, australia, furanone, patent, polymer
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July 22nd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Dear Andrew,
I have just read your scientific article regarding the antifouling protection of aquaculture nets.
We are a commercial company with activities in the wider fishing net industry.
We would like to ask a piece of advice from you since you possess a great amount of experience and expertise.
Would it be possible to recommend us some main companies that produce and trade antifouling for aquaculture Nets?
Kind Regards
Andreas Kalogiros
andrekalogiros@hotmail.com
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:08 am
Dear Andreas
As you have surmised, fouling is a major problem in aquaculture and controlling it constitutes a surprisingly large proportion of production costs (about 70-80%) in the pearling industry in Australia (and, of course, elsewhere). Similar fouling problems are encountered with salmon and other marine species grown in cages. In Australia, and worldwide, there is a desire in the industry, and a trend, to move away from antifouling products based on copper or other metals and to develop more environmentally responsible products based on natural products that bio-degrade quickly in the water
The Australian CRC for aquaculture has, I believe, released details of a series of novel, biodegradable, non-toxic products that deter biofouling.
Dr Steve Hodson, who is with the CRC for Aquaculture in Launceston, Tasmania, may be able to provide additional information. His group has developed, or is developing, antifouling paint products in conjunction with Wattyl paints. His E-mail is Stephen.Hodson@utas.edu.au
A research group at James Cook University of North Queensland is also working on identifying natural physical and chemical antifouling mechanisms. It has a project with an industry partner utilising coatings for pearl shell and aquaculture equipment. A link to one of the researchers involved is http://www.jcu.edu.au/mtb/staff/academic/JCUDEV_014345.html
July 28th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Andreas, you may also care to review this project: http://www.crabproject.com/
August 24th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Andreas,
There is a company based in Europe called Micanti (www.micanti.com) working on a novel solution to fouling.
The product is called THORN-D and is a non-toxic substance that is applied to aquaculture nets to prevent the settling of biofouling organisms on the net surface. It is gaining some uptake with the European net industry.
Regards,
Dale