With modern materials science why can’t some coating or material be devised that will absolutely resist barnacles?
To shed barnacles, a coating would have to be (a) repulsive to barnacles in some way, or (b) prevent the barnacles from being able to attach themselves.
Since the part of the barnacle that is attached to the ship is basically a dead shell, the first option seems moot. Therefore, such a coating would have to be essentially frictionless. A frictionless coating, per se, has yet to be devised.
Several low-friction substances have been invented. Teflon, for example. The problem here isn’t a matter of science or invention, so much as economics and practicability.
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Teflon ain’t cheap. Coating a ship’s hull with it would, in the cost of materials and the cost of the process, seem to me to be economically unfeasible, even when you throw money down ratholes like the Pentagon has been known to. And in the case of smaller vessels…
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Getting Teflon to stick to a frying pan is a rather involved process. It IS a low-friction coating, after all, which, by definition, doesn’t WANNA stick to anything. It can, though, be made to stick to metal, but the process is complicated. Howinhell are we going to get it to stick to a wooden boat hull?
Another avenue is poisons. Anti-fouling agents (don’t you just love marketign spin?) are impregnated in the hull paint - quite a few years back real nasty ones were used. Obviously, one of the side effects was that is killed barnacles, and everything else in a ‘x’ km radius. The following article probably explains it better than I can.
Poseidon Sciences Link.
I think you’ll find it’s a live barnacle when it attaches.