The fouling which settles on gas platform piles was studied using samp
les taken in 1993 from the PCWA and ANTARES platforms positioned, at 7
and 10.5 km from the shore respectively and on bottoms at 12 m and 14
m in the Adriatic Sea. For each platform a pile was chosen as represen
tative of the macrofouling found on the whole platform. In March and S
eptember 1993 samples were obtained by scraping an area of 600 cm(2) f
rom three or four different aspects (North, East, South, West), at the
same depth. Samples were taken at depths of 0.5, 5.5 and 12 m on PCWA
and 0.5, 7 and 12 m on ANTARES. Photographs and video recordings take
n over the whole length of the chosen pile were used for an additional
description of the settlement. On both platforms the macrofouling was
characterized by a dominance of mussels from sea surface to a depth o
f about 10 m. Near the bottom the bivalve Crassostrea gigas, barnacles
, hydroids and serpulids were more important. The presence of the bryo
zoan Schizoporella errata (present only at ANTARES) and the zoanthid E
pizoanthus arenaceus (present only at PCWA) were the main differences
at this depth. The fouling, or mussel weights, of the two platforms we
re similar for the two seasons, even though the highest values were re
gistered in September on PCWA (1 m) with 1561.3g/dm(2), of which 1553g
/dm(2) comprised mussels. A comparison is drawn with a previous foulin
g experiment (which used one-year panels) carried out in 1975-76. (C)
1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.