Fouling and Boring of Glass Reinforced Plastic-Balsa Blocks in a Tropical Marine Environment

摘要

Test blocks constructed of balsa wood coated on each side with a layer of glass reinforced plastic (GRP) were exposed in a tropical marine harbor for 14 months. Undamaged controls and blocks with simulated minor and major damage to the GRP coating were either fully or half immersed. Molluscan borers, mostly teredinids, penetrated and damaged the balsa cores of all blocks examined, with greatest damage to fully immersed major damage blocks. Fouling growth covered all submerged GRP surfaces but had no apparent effect on the coating.