Marine Fouling Project records

Prompted by a desire to obtain more fundamental knowledge of how to prevent marine fouling, the U.S. Navy arranged, from time to time, for biological investigations. This work supplied valuable information on the toxicity of potential paint ingredients to marine organisms, on the nature of the fouling population, its rate of growth, its seasonal and geographical incidence, and the relation of the service in which ships are employed to their tendency to foul.

The proposal that slimes, produced by bacteria and diatoms on submerged surfaces, had an important bearing on subsequent fouling, aroused much interest and led to investigations which culminated in the establishment of the Naval Biological Laboratory at San Diego, and also initiated the work at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The investigations of marine fouling were intiated at WHOI under the supervision of Dr. Selman A. Waksman.

[Taken from The Prevention of Marine Fouling, Eighth Report to the Bureau of Ships, Part II.]