Biofouling, the growth of unwanted organisms on submerged surfaces, is a big issue in the aquaculture sector with large direct costs of cleaning and indirect costs of reduced animal welfare and infrastructure damage.

My project will aim to introduce novel ways for the Tasmanian salmon industry to better monitor and assess the biofouling pressures at certain times of year and at specific sites. These monitoring systems can draw inspiration from other industries to provide a more holistic view on the issues of marine biofouling. Initially, biofouling communities will be characterized on a micro- and macro-scale, across a gradient in time and exposure to wave actions and human interactions.

Their settlement, colonisation and succession on certain substrates will be followed and analysed by frequent sampling. These ecological datasets will reveal how certain environmental parameters and seasonality influence community assemblages at Tassal‘s farms in South-eastern Tasmania. Afterwards, initial steps to anticipate large biofouling events on sites will be taken through a preliminary predictive framework.  The value that this research will then bring to Tassal and the salmon industry as a whole is an improved timing and better understanding of what biofouling management option would be optimal in a specific situation. As an extension to the predictive model, ways to utilize and valorise captured biofouling biomass will be explored to better integrate the salmon industry within a circular economy.

Published articles

ScienceDirect

Development of an image binarization software tool for net occlusion estimations. DOWNLOAD PAPER

September 2025 Update ~ Nelson Student Exchange

PhD Scholar Robin Cappaert completed a student exchange in Nelson, New Zealand, hosted by Bioeconomy Science Institute, including a tour of the labs and experimental aquaculture facilities. The team welcomed Robin with open arms, with meetings on how his research complements theirs and brainstorming future collaborations, particularly related to machine learning applied to aquaculture/biofouling.

Robin and the team visited the green-lipped mussel and Chinook salmon farms around Pelorus Sound, sharing information on the Tasmanian salmon aquaculture industry and the Blue Economy Zone Bass Strait aquaculture research trial. Robin presented his PhD research at the Bioeconomy Science Institute and Cawthron, where fellow PhDs Teish and Bri gave a tour of the aquaculture facilities and the Cawthron molecular labs.