A new study has revealed the widespread and costly impact of barnacle biofouling on the global shipping fleet which poses a major hurdle to the industry’s decarbonisation efforts

Published by I-Tech, developers of the antifouling technology Selektope, the study analysed hull conditions on 685 vessels across a range of ship types and operational profiles between 2015 and 2025.

Findings show that over one-third of vessels had more than 10% of their hull surface covered in barnacles upon entering dry dock, while over 20% had barnacle fouling exceeding 20%.