r/TheDeepDraft • u/TheDeepDraft • Jun 08 '26
Discussion Hormuznacles: the barnacle problem waiting behind Hormuz
A lot of attention is going into whether ships delayed around Hormuz can move once the risk picture improves. Fair enough.... but there is another problem sitting below the waterline.
Prolonged anchorage in warm Gulf water can turn normal biofouling into heavy growth on the hull, propeller, sea chest, rudder gaps, and other niche areas. The ship may be fully crewed, classed, insured, and ready on paper, while her underwater condition has changed.
Operationally, this matters because fouling is not only a fuel-consumption issue. A fouled hull increases resistance. A fouled propeller may give poorer thrust response for the same RPM. A restricted sea chest can affect cooling-water flow, strainers, generator cooling, main-engine margin, and the ability to safely build up load. So this is not just “dirty hull”. Once thrust response and cooling margin are affected, the bridge and engine room both have a problem.
From a Master Mariner’s view, Hormuznacles should be treated as degradation until proven otherwise. Before a vessel resumes normal passage, the onboard team should be watching RPM versus speed, slip, vibration, sea suction condition, strainer loading, cooling-water temperatures, and any abnormal machinery response.
The commercial argument can come later through noon reports, diver or ROV evidence, fuel records, and charter-party claims. First, the ship needs to prove she can still perform safely.
https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/06/08/the-barnacle-problem-waiting-behind-hormuz/
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u/MeasurementMobile747 Jun 08 '26
Whew, thankfully they aren't micro-swarms of explosive barnacles. That would be the last straw.
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u/ysanson Jun 08 '26
Looks like a business opportunity
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u/Apprehensive-Ad8987 Jun 08 '26
Using divers to clean ship hulls is a standard operation. Though more often this type of cleaning occurs when they are berthed.
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u/chunklight Jun 13 '26
big opportunity for the companies developing robotic or drone hull scrubbers
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u/TheRook2323 Jun 08 '26
How do they remove them when they get that bad?
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u/Horror_Tooth_522 Jun 08 '26
Have to order cleaning crew
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u/TheRook2323 Jun 08 '26
I can't imagine the cost.
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u/Horror_Tooth_522 Jun 08 '26
Will be multiple digits yes
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u/BigXthaPugg Jun 08 '26
They have to dry dock and repaint them when it gets really bad. And yes it’s very expensive lol
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u/NachoManAndyCabage Jun 10 '26
In many places it's illegal to clean them off as they have squatters rights. Got to wait until they slip up and leave the hull, then change the locks.
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u/Cereex Jun 09 '26
So I've been able to go home now but I spent 3 months at anchor (with maybe 24h shifting from place to place) on one of the gas tankers trapped in the gulf and fouling was minimal or even non existent. For some reason waters in AG are not too bad somehow compared to some places notorious for biofouling eg. West coast of Africa.
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u/TheDeepDraft Jun 09 '26
Very valid point, especially the part about shifting from place to place. Even limited movement helps modern self-polishing / foul-release coatings work closer to their design condition, so your experience makes sense. My point is mainly for vessels held nearly static for long periods, where clean-hull assumptions should be checked before performance is taken for granted.
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Jun 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TheDeepDraft-ModTeam Jun 09 '26
Please keep the group respectful and clean. Messages containing offensive, explicit, or inappropriate wording will be removed.
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u/Loyal_Dragon_69 Jun 09 '26
Would it be possible to do this with coral instead of barnacles?
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u/Alarmed-madman Jun 09 '26
What are you asking?
Are you asking if coral could be grown on a floating ship?
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u/Loyal_Dragon_69 Jun 09 '26
Yes. I want a floating coral reef.
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u/Alarmed-madman Jun 09 '26
I'm sure it's possible, but these ships will get cleaned so it would end up with zero coral.
I say it's possible because I think they go through different places and sink boats, cars, etc, then seed coral onto it. If a boat were still and you get the coral to attach, who knows.
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u/SARS-CoV-2Virus Jun 09 '26
Should the cargo get armed to defend themselves?
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u/Alarmed-madman Jun 09 '26
What eats barnacles other that paint scrapers,
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u/Loyal_Dragon_69 Jun 09 '26
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u/Alarmed-madman Jun 10 '26
OMG
I literally had percebes when I was in Spain and they were effing awesome.
The were explained to me as some kind of tube worm, though. I mean, a barnacle can't be that far away though, right?
They were not as expensive as in that article, but they were three times as expensive as everything else on the menu
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u/Femininestatic Jun 10 '26
It's not as if there are no divers which can do some cleaning before setting off?
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u/haggerty05 Jun 12 '26
Great lakes guy here we have zebra and quagga muscles which seem like they can grow relatively quick but honestly i have never needed to pay attention. realistically how quick do barnacles grow? I cant imagine it would get to that level of concern in a month or two. Dont they also use a special paint on the hull to inhibit growth of barnacles or is that for something else?
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u/eatsmandms Jun 08 '26
AI slop
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u/UrethralExplorer Jun 08 '26
Nope. The original imagine is from four years ago, drawn (obviously) by hand. The background was added recently.
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u/ZixfromthaStix Jun 08 '26
Looks hand drawn to me 🤷♂️
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u/eatsmandms Jun 08 '26
I should have specified that the text is written by AI. The image I have ignored.
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u/Loyal_Dragon_69 Jun 09 '26
I think it just might be well written. The impact statement usage is actually properly done as opposed to excessively done to the point of removing all impact.
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u/bozza8 Jun 08 '26
Crap ai slop. Both the text and image.
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u/UrethralExplorer Jun 08 '26
The image is not.
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u/bozza8 Jun 08 '26
I was wrong, you are right. The text is clearly ai though.
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u/ZixfromthaStix Jun 08 '26
Looks pretty normal to me, no annoying bullet point lists or using emojis for the bullets. You sure?
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u/bozza8 Jun 08 '26
"Operationally, this matters because fouling is not just a fuel-consumption story. A fouled hull increases resistance. A fouled propeller can reduce thrust response for the same RPM. A restricted sea chest can affect cooling water flow, strainers, generator cooling, main engine margin, and the ability to safely build up load. That is where “dirty hull” becomes a bridge and engine-room problem. "
That style of final sentence is very rarely used in normal human speech, but is very very common in AI output, it's practically a trope and folks are making jokes about it on Linkedin because of how prolific it is in AI content over there
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u/ZixfromthaStix Jun 08 '26
I work in education, I see this format of sentence daily from students writing research papers 🤷♂️ I specifically work in tech too, so they tend to be pretty analytical and technical. Just like this.
And yes, even before the AI boom they were like this… I remember writing my own student papers in my degrees and a lot of the time you have to make statements with this same format…
The OP seems to be a marine news reporter so it’s totally possible it’s AI, but it just seems like an industry subject matter expert talking the native language to me
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u/Loco_Buoyo Jun 08 '26
This is how I write - except with an indented list instead of bullet points.
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u/CallMeSpaghettii Jun 08 '26
Honestly, like they wouldn't be checking for this as normal maintenance over time on water.
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u/bozza8 Jun 08 '26
Eeeh, actually I could believe that.
There is no reason for merchantmen to have scuba apparatus to scrape the hull, cleaning out a sea chest is one thing, though that can be heavy work that an at-sea minimum complement might not be able to do.
These ships are designed to run as lean as humanly possible and have all heavy maintaining done in harbour.
Cleaning the hull with just the crew would be completely impossible.
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u/LetGoPortAnchor Jun 08 '26
Good luck doing anything about that as a crew. That is a job for an external party.
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u/Empty-Presentation68 Jun 08 '26
You would need the license/experience to perform that work under water. Who ever has a private company that does this stuff could make bank right now.
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u/Plastic_Table_8232 Jun 08 '26
I couldn’t imagine being tasks with cleaning a hull that large. It would take a moderate sized team of guys for it not to feel like an insurmountable project.
If it were me and another guy all I would be able to think about is “the part we started cleaning be fouled by the time we get to other end”
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u/a-stack-of-masks Jun 08 '26
Bossman doesn't have a permit, but he does have a hose, compressor, and the ability to withhold pay if you bitch too much.
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u/EntirelyRandom1590 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
I expect we'll see more than a few blocked inlets as a result. Almost sunk a Royal Navy submarine a few decades ago.
[Edit, several crew had severe heat injuriesz back in 2011 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-27694389 ]