Managing the risk of marine bioinvasion via biofouling: trends in methods of assessment, policy, and legislation

Maritime shipping has been recognized as the main pathway of species transference throughout the world. Ballast water or fouling on vessels have become the main vectors of aquatic species transportation between coastal marine ecosystems, which can lead to significant social, economic, and ecological negative impacts. Approximately 55% of non-indigenous marine species can be associated with vessel biofouling. However, acting to prevent, detect, manage, and control bioinvasion via biofouling is relatively recent. To improve non-indigenous marine species management, several risk assessment frameworks have been proposed. This research undertook a systematic bibliographic review to investigate whether and how risk assessment has been used to manage marine bioinvasion via biofouling. We analyzed 410 scientific studies published until December 31, 2023, via the Scopus database, filtering them by keywords, title, and abstract. This study describes the parameters and methodologies to assess bioinvasion risks. Furthermore, it discusses the incorporation of risk assessments into global, regional, and country-level public policies, the latter based on countries that publish the most on the topic. This research highlights the scarcity of mandatory measures to manage biofouling, as well as the urgent need to standardize risk assessment methodologies and to incorporate the effects of climate change into these assessments. The development of advanced data analysis tools and a unified strategy to effectively address the complex challenge of marine bioinvasions is also suggested.