IMO MEPC biofouling — voluntary to mandatory by ~2030.

1. Where we are today (2026)

IMO Resolution MEPC.207(62) gives guidelines for the control and management of ships' biofouling. Voluntary. Some flag states (Australia, New Zealand) have already moved ahead with mandatory regimes (DAFF, MPI). California and a growing number of US states layer additional rules. The EU applies ETS Maritime + FuelEU pressure, which biofouling quietly worsens by increasing fuel burn.

2. MEPC 84 (May 2026) — the inflection

The Marine Environment Protection Committee's 84th session is where the substantive shift starts. Expect stronger guidance, baseline reporting expectations, and a timeline toward mandatory measures. Operators who are already structured for assessment + reporting are ready; operators relying on unstructured PDFs are behind.

3. Draft → enforcement (2029 → ~2030)

Draft regulation expected ~2029. Enforcement realistically by ~2030, though the exact form (mandatory inspection cycles, mandatory cleaning thresholds, mandatory port-state evidence) is still being negotiated. Practically every fleet operator should plan for: per-vessel biofouling evidence as a recurring artifact, machine-readable for verifier ingest.

4. What this means for capex cycles starting now

• Inspection capacity. Fleet-wide ROV / diver / drone capacity to assess biofouling becomes a recurring operational requirement, not an occasional one.
• Structured assessment. PDF survey reports do not survive verifier scrutiny at scale. Structured, schema-conformant biofouling data (per zone, per finding, per inspection cycle) is the artifact regulators will ask for.
• Audit lineage. The same evidence pack that satisfies IMO biofouling will satisfy EU ETS, IMO CII, FuelEU. One structured passport, multi-regulator consumption.
• Tool-of-record positioning. The fleet that builds this muscle now has the workflow + the evidence base when the rules turn mandatory. Those starting in 2029 will be racing infrastructure.

5. The BIMCO standard angle

BIMCO is the standard-setter for shipping. Their digital biofouling assessment schema is the most likely format operators will be expected to produce + verifiers expected to consume. Hullproof emits the BIMCO-format export native (see live demo), so the workflow is the same whether the output goes to internal asset management or to a verifier.

6. The Hullproof position

We built CoatingPassport to be the structured intermediate object the entire regulatory stack will consume. Biofouling, corrosion, coating breakdown, structural defects — all the same schema, all the same lineage trail, all four years ahead of the regulation forcing the industry to catch up.