WOC Reaches Out to Engage Offshore Renewable Energy in Ocean re Solutions to Biofouling: Third GloFouling Project Webinar, 17 March
Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2020
Time: 7:00 am (PST), 10:00 am (EST), 2:00 pm (GMT), 3:00 pm (CET), 5:00 pm (EAT)
The World Ocean Council (WOC) – the lead GloFouling Project Partner for engaging the wider ocean business and investment community – invites interested parties to the 3rd GloFouling Webinar: “Monitoring Biofouling in the Offshore Renewable Energy Industry”, 17 March at 2:00pm (GMT).
The webinars are part of the GEF-UNDP-IMO GloFouling Partnerships Project which is working to better understand and tackle the multi-sectoral challenge of biofouling and its impacts on marine biodiversity and the Sustainable Blue Economy.
Global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are increasing the deployment of new technologies and structures to generate electricity from ocean resources such as tides and waves. The 17 March webinar will highlight the challenges related to biofouling in the marine renewables sector, particularly how biofouling can increase drag and accelerate corrosion, and the role of these new coastal structures as a stepping stone for non-indigenous species.
Dr. Andrew Want is a marine ecologist with specialist expertise in biofouling and hard substrate epifaunal assemblages, including barnacles and macroalgae in high-energy habitats targeted by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) sector. His research background in biofouling includes developing and leading the international Biofouling in Renewable Energy Environments (BioFREE) project, as well the numerous other projects such as Forensic Decommissioning of Tidal Energy Converters (FoDTEC) study. In addition to these biofouling projects described above, he has: conducted numerous surveys of offshore energy infrastructure; worked with local fisheries in improving ecological functioning of marine infrastructure; researched genetic connectivity of isolated algal populations in the North Atlantic; and, surveyed Marine Protected Areas and priority marine features for governmental regulators. Through this research and collaborations, he has built strong connections throughout the biofouling and ORE sectors, and with marine subcontractors and regulatory bodies. Dr. Want has extensive teaching experience at postgraduate and undergraduate level, and regularly presents at international conferences. Recent peer-reviewed papers have been published in journals including: Biofouling; Ocean and Coastal Management; Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews; and, International Journal of Marine Energy.
Click here to register for the webinar.
The webinars are open to all participants free of charge.
For more information, visit https://www.glofouling.imo.
