… biofouling poses a huge threat to Nigeria’s transition to Blue Economy – Jamoh
… as all-women panel discuss biofouling
The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Doctor Bashir Jamoh, has stressed that biofouling is a huge threat to the transition of Nigeria’s transition to Blue Economy.
Jamoh said this on Monday, while delivering his keynote address at a three-day workshop on Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies (Test Biofouling) Project for Partnering Countries in partnership with Maritime Technology Cooperation Center (MTCC).
While noting that Shipping is at the crux of global trading and the Economy with about 90 per cent of world trade and commerce facilitated through shipping, he however pointed out that studies over time have revealed that ships serve as a channel for transportation of harmful non-indigenous Invasive Aquatic Species (IAS).
“These organisms attached themselves to the outer surface and niche areas of a ship, and are then translocated from one ecoregion to another. The process by which these organisms attached themselves to the ship and other surfaces is referred to as Biofouling,” he explained.
In line with this, to prevent the menace ascribed to biofouling in our waters, Jamoh disclosed that Nigeria has adopted the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Guideline for the Control and Management of Ship’s Biofouling.
He said: “Nigeria’s economy relies heavily on international trade with shipping being a key component of the country’s import and export activities. This has inevitably exposed the nation to threats of the IAS transfer into our territorial waters.
“It is noteworthy that when these non-indigenous marine species are introduced into an ecoregion, they possess the ability to outcompete the native ones, thereby threatening their existence, biodiversity and national food security resulting in huge social and economic impact. Furthermore, biofouling increases the hydrodynamic drag of ships which results in increased fuel consumption, reduced speed and maneuverability.
“It is important to highlight that biofouling poses a huge threat to Nigeria’s transition to the Blue Economy as it incurs environmental burdens such as low productivity, biodiversity, lower resilience to climate change and economic burdens including financial loss due to low productivity, huge prevention and control costs, in addition to increased operational cost of offshore infrastructures among others.
“Consequently, to prevent the menace ascribed to biofouling in our waters, Nigeria has adopted the IMO Guideline for the Control and Management of Ship’s Biofouling which is an international instrument aimed at addressing and maintaining the efficiency, safety and environmental sustainability of our maritime operations as well as prevent the spread of invasive species in our waters.”
He announced that the workshop themed ‘The Place of Technologies In The Management of Marine Biofouling’ would break down the complexity in the application of technologies available in the management of biofouling.
“Technological advancements have led to some innovative solutions by experts to aid the control and mitigate the impact of biofouling. However, some of these technologies exhibit complexity in the course of their application.
“This workshop on Test Biofouling Project is an initiative of the IMO in close partnership with the MTCC to assist developing countries advance their knowledge about and facilitate the implementation of the IMO Biofouling Guidelines owing to the complexity of biofouling management and the technologies available,” he added.
The day one of the workshop had an all-women panel session looking at the role of women in the management of biofouling.
The panel noted that IMO involves women in everything it does, knowing that more would be achieved when women are involved, but however, regretted that there are not enough women in biofouling.
According to the panel, the lack can be linked to the fact that biofouling is new concept, hence more women should be brought in through training and other campaigns to raise awareness.
Moderation of the session, the Deputy Director MEM Department & MTCC Africa Focal Point, Doctor Oma Ofodile said “the main problem is lack of training; awareness should be made. Women have brain power so training would make the necessary impact because issues like this don’t need physical power but brain power.”