Shipping contributes to the uncontrolled introduction of invasive species to the Baltic Sea, which has severe environmental and economic consequences.
A successor of the initial COMPLETE project that focussed on minimizing the introduction of alien species via ballast water and biofouling, the continuation COMPLETE PLUS aims to ensure that the outputs and tools from COMPLETE will be operationalized to ensure their concrete implementation and sustainable use. This will be achieved by outreach and training of all main target groups (i.e. shipping companies, environmental and maritime authorities, ports, contracting parties of HELCOM) in the practical implementation and real-world application of COMPLETE outputs. A central part of this work is the elaboration of specific mechanisms and pathways for the long-term maintenance of these tools and their further sustainable use through coordination between relevant end-users.
There will be seven main concrete outcomes of COMPLETE PLUS: 1) the validated operationality of the Early Warning System on harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens aimed to minimize the uptake of ballast water by ships under critical biological conditions; 2) the updated Target Species list ready to use by shipping companies for applying and by maritime administrations for granting exemptions under the Ballast Water Management Convention; 3) a unified online service with user-friendly data extraction tools ensuring accessibility and use of all available monitoring data on non-indigenous species in the Baltic Sea by relevant governmental authorities and stakeholders; 4) the proposal for HELCOM guidance documents of biofouling management, available for both commercial shipping and the boating sector, based on the Baltic Sea Biofouling Management Roadmap; 5) the practical guidance for choosing anti-fouling systems and applications in real-life conditions for shipping companies and for the leisure boat owners; 6) the tested tool for evaluating the biofouling risk and its cost-effective management and the tool for assessment of biofouling management on ship speed, fuel consumption and emissions; and 7) the risk assessment procedure for granting permissions for in-water cleaning.
Funding
COMPLETE is co-funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme
Duration of the project: 1.4.2021 – 31.12.2021
Total budget: 750,909.36 €
Additional information
Project leader at SYKE, Research Professor Maiju Lehtiniemi, firsname.lastname@syke.fi