Investigating the Potential For Development of a Marine Anti-Foulant Treatment from Marine Bacteria

Description

This project will explore the potential of developing an antifouling treatment derived from local marine bacteria for use in aquaculture as an alternative to existing antifouling treatments. The approach is based on the identification of marine bacteria which inhibit the early colonization of surfaces by bacteria which promote or permit the settlement of macroscopic fouling organisms. In order to accomplish this goal, the project is organized into the following objectives.

1. Isolation, identification and cultivation of early bacterial colonizers from selected marine surfaces.
2. To apply in vitro high throughput screening assays for the selection of bacteria from a library of marine bacteria which produce substances that actively inhibit the early colonizers identified in objective 1.
3. Formulate extracts from antifouling strains identified in objective 2 into experimental coatings for testing.
4. Testing of experimental coatings on selected surfaces in vivo and compare with current industry standard products

Program Name

Aquaculture Collaborative Research and Development Program (ACRDP)

Year(s)

2008 - 2010

Ecoregion(s)

Atlantic: Gulf of Maine, Scotian Shelf

Principal Investigator(s)

Shawn Robinson
Email: Shawn.Robinson@dfo-mpo.gc.ca