As part of the HESC Project’s commitment to maintaining the marine biodiversity of Hastings, the project engaged environmental consultants RPS Group, Consulting Environmental Engineers Pty Ltd and Biofouling Management Services to assess the risk of invasive marine species introductions (IMS) to Western Port during visits by the Suiso Frontier and to monitor high-risk sites for new introductions.
The independent study is now complete, and a Marine Species Report has been generated. It found that the risk of introduction of IMS to Western Port by the Suiso Frontier during the HESC pilot project was low and there were no new introductions of IMS during the pilot project.