Biofouling of fishing gear and its prevention in Muscat waters

Marine biofouling is an undesirable growth of micro- and macro-organisms on man-made surfaces. It causes enormous problems in the maintenance of ships, boats, fishing nets, cages and decreasing their fishing efficiency worldwide and in the Sultanate of Oman, in particular. Countries worldwide spend more than US$5 billion per year to fight biofouling using toxic compounds that kill non-target organisms and accumulate in the marine environment. While marine organisms also faced problem of biofouling, they evolved effective defences to prevent it. In comparison to other regions, there is limited information about biofouling on fishing gear and its effective prevention in Oman waters. We hypothesized that biofouling on fishing gear can be prevented by using a ?learning from nature approach?. In the proposed project we are going to: 1) screen marine organisms for chemical antifouling defence; 2) investigate the effect of biofouling on physical properties of fishing gear; 3) identify an effective strategy to prevent biofouling on fishing gear. The results of this project will result in an economy of resources spent for antifouling defence, reduced environmental risks and increased antifouling efficiency of fishing gear. Throughout the project, emphasis will be placed on capacity building especially through the training of young Omani scientists. Education benefits will occur through scientific publications in peer-review journals and knowledge transfer.