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The TARA Foundation and Poseidon Sciences Group announced a collaboration to evaluate the antifouling performance of commercial marine coatings products. The organizations are inviting coatings companies to submit products for the evaluation project.
In the collaboration, the hull of the 118-foot schooner Tara Oceans will be examined periodically during its current, three-year voyage around the world. As the ship passes through various marine ecosystems, unpainted patches on the hull will be examined, with images of the hull to be transmitted electronically to one of Poseidon Sciences’ marine stations for evaluation.
TARA and Poseidon Sciences have also designed a research protocol in which environmentally friendly coatings products will be applied to 1-square-meter areas of the hull, with the coated areas to be photographed and observed by the crew during the course of the voyage. Details of the research, which will be proprietary to each participating company, will provide useful information on the coatings’ ability to prevent invasive-species attachment, the organizations said.
Tara Oceans is a specially designed vessel sponsored by the French Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and other marine research institutions. The ship’s primary mission is to conduct surveys of marine ecosystems as it travels on its voyage around the world.
Poseidon Sciences is a research organization that evaluates and tests coatings for the marine industry at various tropical marine and subsea stations around the world.
More information about the project can be obtained by contacting Sy Rotter, executive director of the TARA Foundation for Marine Research, at syrotter@taramarineexpeditions.org., or Jonathan R. Matias, executive director, Poseidon Sciences Group, at jmatias@poseidonsciences.com.
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