Chemical Compositions and Toxicity Potentials of Antifouling Biocides released during Ship’s Hull Cleaning

Abstract

Uncontrolled release of the effluent generated during ship’s hull cleaning as a biofouling measure can be of great concern to the environment. As a worst-case scenario of the release, wastewater from ship’s haul-out cleaning by hydroblasting was collected and analyzed to understand the potential impacts of the release to the marine environment. Metals and booster biocides in the effluents from three ships covering from regional to oceanic voyages were analyzed. Total suspended solids and particle size distribution in the wastewater were also characterized. Copper and zinc were the most abundant metals in the wastewater, with the ranges of 6.24