2009-10-06

Cetaceans Inspire New Technology For Ships

New Scientist Magazine reports that 'fouling by marine life is a problem for shipowners, as it requires vessels to be brought into dry dock every couple of years to remove plants and animals from the hull.' Cetaceans may have the answer.

New Scientist goes onto say '...designing ships to exude slime from their hulls could cut their fuel consumption by up to 20 per cent. The slime would form a gelatinous skin that continually sloughs off, taking with it the barnacles and other marine life forms that cause energy-sapping drag as they accumulate on the ships' underside... the solution is inspired by the skin of the long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas In a paper published in 2002 Baum's team reported that the surface of the whale's skin is criss-crossed with a network of nanoscale canals too small for any barnacle larvae to gain any purchase (Marine Biology, DOI: 10.1007/s00227-001-0710-8). They also found that the canals are filled with a gel of enzymes that destroy proteins on the surface of bacteria and algae.'

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