The Minister of Climate and Environment visisting the Port og Bergen

The cruise ship AIDAnova made its first visit to Bergen this year, with hull cleaning on the agenda.

The shipping industry has long struggled with cleaning the bottom of ships or their hulls. Historically, hull cleaning meant that everything removed was released directly into the sea, releasing toxins, heavy metals, and living organisms into the water.

The Port of Bergen will no longer allow this to happen and has banned traditional hull cleaning in the harbor. Only cleaning methods that collect waste in a closed system are now permitted.

Fortunately, rapid advancements are being made in methods that make hull cleaning more environmentally friendly. Today, the minister witnessed a demonstration of how the Austevoll-based company ECOsubsea cleans ship hulls. Their method works like a vacuum cleaner, literally suctioning off marine growth from the ships. The collected sludge is stored in a container on land and then sent for biogas production.

Tor Mikal Østervold, CEO of ECOsubsea, informed the minister that around 80 percent of new species introduced worldwide come through marine growth on ships. This costs the global community over 400 billion dollars annually due to its damaging effects on local fauna.

The Port of Bergen and the Port of Oslo aim to establish a common policy for approving cleaning operations and systems. The goal is that the framework will eventually be adopted by all Norwegian ports.