COMPLETE PLUS

COMPLETE PLUS equipped shipping companies, ports, environmental and maritime authorities with supporting tools to improve biofouling management.

The challenge

Biofouling, or biological fouling, is the accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae, or small animals on wet surfaces that have a mechanical function, causing structural or other functional deficiencies. Shipping contributes to the uncontrolled introduction of invasive species to the Baltic Sea, which has severe environmental and economic consequences. Such concrete challenges as loss of native species, habitat change, reduced landings of coastal fisheries, damage to aquaculture, threatened biodiversity and natural ecosystems of the Baltic Sea are to mention a few. Invasive species introduction and spreading of alien species can be reduced by introducing harmonized solutions shared on a regional level.

COMPLETE PLUS brought the Biofouling Management Roadmap and other tools and guidelines developed in the project COMPLETE into practice. The project reached out to and trained key players, including shipping companies, environmental and maritime authorities, ports, contracting parties of HELCOM in using the tools in their work.

Budgets

COMPLETE PLUS
in numbers

0.75

Million

Total
0.59

Million

Erdf
0.00

Million

Eni + Russia
0.00

Million

Norway

Achievements

One of the project´s main tools was the Early Warning System (EWS) which is highly relevant for an exchange of information on harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens (HAOP). EWS improves the capacity of organisations involved in monitoring and surveillance of HAOP and non-indigenous species (NIS) in the Baltic Sea region. The predecessor project COMPLETE identified over 30 such organisations (environmental authorities, research institutes, NGOs, and others) and 10 institutions entitled to send a warning signal (e.g. port authorities). COMPLETE PLUS ensured that information canals for EWS were working and the criteria for issuing the warning signal were equally understood by all end-users. The risk assessment tool under the HELCOM-OSPAR Joint Harmonized Procedure (JHP) is currently used to identify routes where exemptions to ballast water (fresh or saltwater held in the ballast tanks and cargo holds of ships to improve stability) management under the Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC) can be granted.

The Target Species (TS) list serve as the basis of this risk assessment tool. COMPLETE PLUS renewed the TS list to enable the full-scale use of the tool by the shipping companies (who applying for exemptions), and by the administrations (who grants these exemptions). The online service developed in COMPLETE PLUS for all non-indigenous species (NIS) data allowed stakeholders, to access these data from one endpoint. It allowed enhancing regional cooperation and facilitating NIS management since the most updated information would be available faster for all the stakeholders, including the contact points of the EWS. All in all, the results from COMPLETE PLUS provided practical solutions for improving biofouling management in the Baltic Sea region.

Outputs

Functional Non-Indigenous Species monitoring data flow

The tool helps extract reported monitoring data and operates as a regional data flow to ensure the accessibility of all non-indigenous species (NIS) data to be directly available for the HELCOM NIS core indicator. The data is transferred by regularly querying a database/web service and visualising the data in the tool web application. This allows to reduce manual effort of HELCOM countries’ relevant authorities (e.g. Ministries of the Environment) in reporting under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. This service helps facilitate the Early Warning System as well as NIS management by national authorities, smoothing and speeding the exchange of information between the countries across the region.

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Information on technical solutions for optimised biofouling management in the Baltic Sea region

The information material targets commercial shipping and leisure boating sectors on choosing the best, most sustainable, and environmentally-friendly anti-fouling systems and methods. The summary includes the available data and results on the anti-fouling system and hull cleaning effectiveness. The data has been evaluated in in-field testing scenarios reported in hull cleaning divers’ reports. This allows for estimating how well the recommendations work on a large scale and in real-life conditions. The guidance is easily accessible for both leisure boaters and commercial shipping actors, including shipping companies, hull cleaning companies, environmental and maritime authorities, and ports.

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Risk assessment procedure for in-water cleaning (IWC)

The risk assessment procedure considers three relevant aspects of in-water cleaning: risk of species introduction, risk of contaminant and microplastic input, and safety of the workers performing inwater cleaning. Administrations and ports (the main bodies responsible for in-water cleaning) as well as transport and environmental agencies from all interested Baltic Sea region countries contributed to the development by evaluating applicability of the procedure in their locations. The risk assessment concept is based on experiences from the project but also on experiments performed in other research studies from all over the world. This approach allows authorities to reach a regionally harmonized common understanding of how decisions regarding granting permissions for in-water cleaning can be made.

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