Thousands of commercial vessels stranded for months in the Persian Gulf following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz could unintentionally trigger a massive marine invasive species event, according to a new study.
A team of of 24 marine scientists, led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), and including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), published the study titled Closure of the Strait of Hormuz May Trigger a Bioinvasion Super-Spreader Event in the journal Biological Invasions.
According to the scientists, prolonged periods at anchor allow ship hulls to accumulate dense communities of marine organisms, including algae, barnacles, mussels, and other invertebrates, which can be transported around the world when vessels resume normal trade routes.
The authors described the unprecedented lay-up of more than 1,500 ships as creating conditions for a potential global marine bioinvasion “super-spreader” event.
Carolyn Tepolt, a WHOI biologist whose research focuses on the evolution and spread of marine invasive species, contributed expertise on how globally distributed biofouling organisms can rapidly adapt to new environmental conditions.
“Marine invasive species have profound ecological and economic impacts on coastlines across the globe,” explained Tepolt, “and are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate once they become established. This disruption to global shipping has many repercussions and has also more quietly created ideal conditions to spread warm-water species to new ports.”
Modern shipping has long been recognised as one of the primary pathways for marine invasive species, the authors noted. However, the scale and duration of the recent vessel lay-up is unlike anything previously documented, creating an unprecedented global biosecurity challenge.
The experts called on ship operators, port authorities, regulators, and environmental managers to strengthen ship biofouling management, expand monitoring at high-risk ports, improve forecasting of vessel movements, and coordinate rapid international response efforts.