Deep Ocean News

Spain-based Gondan Shipbuilders has started the construction of an advanced remotely operated unmanned surface vehicle (USV) for a company made up of DeepOcean, Solstad and Østensjø Rederi alliance called USV A/S.The project focuses on improving subsea operations, targeting a reduction of CO2 emissions by more than 90% compared to conventional methods.The new USV will be used for underwater maintenance and inspection missions.Designed by Salt Ship Design, the vessel will feature a hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system…

Scientists aboard Britain's high-tech polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough are headed to the Weddell Sea to investigate how carbon dioxide moves and transforms in the Southern Ocean.The ship departed Tuesday from Punta Arenas, Chile for the 30-day scientific expedition.As the carbon in the seawater rises to the surface near Antarctica, it interacts with the atmosphere, ice, and microscopic plants and animals, called phytoplankton and zooplankton, near the ocean surface, before descending to the ocean depths.

Ocean services provider DeepOcean has agreed to charter a converted, battery-powered vessel to further enhance its subsea offering to the offshore renewables and oil and gas industries.DeepOcean has entered into a long-time charter agreement for the Island Condor – to be renamed Island Ocean multi-purpose support vessel (MPSV) – following conversion and upgrade.The vessel has been chartered from Norwegian shipowner Island Offshore., with the contract starting in the third quarter of 2024.

Humans have sailed the world’s oceans for thousands of years, but they haven’t all reached port. Researchers estimate that there are some three million shipwrecks worldwide, resting in shallow rivers and bays, coastal waters and the deep ocean. Many sank during catastrophes – some during storms or after running aground, others in battle or collisions with other vessels.Shipwrecks like the RMS Titanic, RMS Lusitania and USS Monitor conjure tales of human courage and sacrifice, sunken treasure and unsolved mysteries.

Subsea services company DeepOcean and the Norwegian oil and gas company Aker BP have agreed to "pioneer" the use of an unmanned surface vessel (USV) for subsea inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) and survey work.The first USV is planned to be ready for offshore operations from 2025, when it will go on an eight-year charter agreement with DeepOcean from specialist provider USV AS."Aker BP and DeepOcean already cooperate under a frame agreement for subsea IMR and survey work, and Aker BP has contributed to the development of the USV.

The Norwegian offshore vessel owner Solstad Offshore has secured contract extensions for three of its offshore vessels.Equinor has declared the last contractual yearly option for the AHTS “Normand Ferking”. With the declaration of this option, “Normand Ferking” is now firm until November 2024. The vessel is currently in the port of Slovag, Norway.Subsea 7 has exercised the 2024 Optional Charter Period for the CSV “Normand Subsea”. The contract is now firm until December 31, 2024. Subsea 7 has the option to extend the contract for another year.

On a windswept island 50 miles north of Seattle sits a U.S. Navy monitoring station. For years, it was kept busy tracking whale movements and measuring rising sea temperatures. Last October, the Navy gave the unit a new name that better reflects its current mission: Theater Undersea Surveillance Command.The renaming of the spy station at the Whidbey Island naval base is a nod to a much larger U.S. military project, according to three people with direct knowledge of the plans:…

Ocean explorer Rob McCallum has offered to join a mission to find and retrieve the data recorder of the livestock carrier that capsized in the East China Sea in 2020.Reporting by 7News.com.au indicates that McCallum is confident that his team could find the Gulf Livestock 1, offering fresh hope to the families of the missing crew after some recently voiced disappointment with the investigation report into the catastrophe published by flag state Panama.The livestock carrier was sailing from New Zealand to China with 43 crew and approximately 6,000 dairy cattle onboard when it capsized in the East China Sea during Typhoon Maysak. 40 crew members remain missing after the capsize.As vessel flag state…

Experts raised safety concerns in 2018 about the submersible vessel that has been missing since Sunday, when it descended with tourists on a deep ocean journey to view the wreckage of the Titanic.The pilot and four passengers are aboard and the available oxygen on the vehicle has been forecast to run out by Thursday morning.The Titan submersible is a 22-foot (6.7-meter)-long vessel operated by Everett, Washington-based OceanGate Expeditions. It first made a voyage dive to 4,000 meters (13…

A five-person submersible vessel taking wealthy adventurers on a $250,000 trip to see the wreckage of the 1912 Titanic disaster 12,500 feet (3,800m) undersea is missing in the Atlantic off Canada.Reuters is reporting the following individuals onboard:HAMISH HARDING. The British billionaire and chairman of aviation consultancy Action Aviation is among those missing, according to his stepson. Dubai-based Harding had posted on social media that he was proud to be heading to the Titanic as a "mission specialist"…

Offshore wind energy planners are giving close review to fixed-tower systems in order to extend lessons learned to floating wind towers, under development now. In the U.S., floating towers have been most closely associated with plans for new wind energy areas (WEA) in the Pacific, off of California and maybe Oregon and Washington. But important research is also taking place in Maine, at the University of Maine, because of deep ocean Atlantic areas there, and floating towers may also be used in the Gulf of Mexico.As most readers likely know…

Subsea services firm DeepOcean has taken the Olympic Ares multi-purpose support vessel (MPSV) on a two-year charter. The vessel is owned by the Norwegian shipowner Olympic Subsea.The vessel is a modern construction support vessel equipped with a 250 Te crane. It will provide subsea inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR), light construction, and recycling services to DeepOcean’s clients in the offshore renewables and oil and gas industries.Øyvind Mikaelsen, CEO of DeepOcean…

As companies race to expand renewable energy and the batteries to store it, finding sufficient amounts of rare earth metals to build the technology is no easy feat. That’s leading mining companies to take a closer look at a largely unexplored frontier – the deep ocean seabed.A wealth of these metals can be found in manganese nodules that look like cobblestones scattered across wide areas of deep ocean seabed. But the fragile ecosystems deep in the oceans are little understood…

The U.K. has awarded Babcock International’s Rosyth shipyard a £45 million (approx. US$56.6 million) contract to maintain its fleet of three scientific research vessels.The initial three-year contract, announced by U.K. Industry and Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani earlier this month, will see the large oceanographic and polar research vessels RRS Sir David Attenborough, RRS Discovery and RRS James Cook dock at Babcock’s state-of-the-art facilities in Rosyth, Scotland, for programmed maintenance and upgrade work.

Norwegian offshore vessel company Solstad Offshore has won contracts for three of its subsea construction vessels (CSV).Normand Vision has been awarded a new contract with Havfram AS for a period of 3 years firm plus an option for an extra 2 years. The contract will start in January 2024, in direct continuation of present agreement with Havfram.Normand Ocean has been awarded an extension and a new contract with DeepOcean AS for a total period of 2 years firm from January 2024.

A smart buoy that can "hear" the ocean and monitor climate change is part of a new effort to help endangered whales avoid ship collisions on their journey from Antarctica to the equator.The buoy was installed in the Gulf of Corcovado, some 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) south of Chile's capital, in early October and is the first of many planned by the Blue Boat Initiative, a project designed to protect whales and monitor marine ecosystems.The area is teeming with marine life and…

Phoenix International Holdings Inc. announced it has been awarded a $112 million cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for worldwide undersea deep ocean search and recovery operations and engineering and technical support to the U.S. Navy Director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV). Work will be performed worldwide and is expected to be completed in September 2027.Commenting on the award, Phoenix President Patrick Keenan stated, “Phoenix has a long history of providing undersea operations services to the U.S.

Shipbuilder Austal USA and has formed a strategic partnership with Saildrone, Inc to build cutting-edge, autonomous uncrewed surface vehicles.The partnership  ensures that production of the autonomous and uncrewed Saildrone Surveyor will accelerate to meet the growing demand of the U.S. Navy and other government customers for the cutting-edge solution for maritime domain awareness, hydrographic survey, and other missions requiring persistent wide area coverage. Autonomous vessel capability has been identified as an area of strategic importance by the U.S. Navy.

Subsea services company DeepOcean has chartered Volstad Maritime's M/S Volantis subsea construction vessel, which will, before starting the charter in 2023, be upgraded with batteries to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.The time charter will run from the first quarter of 2023 until the end of 2024, with options for further extensions."DeepOcean has set a target to achieve a 45 percent reduction in CO2 emissions before 2030. By 2040 we aim to be carbon neutral. Chartering vessels from vessel owners who share the same environmental commitment is key to this strategy…

Greensea Systems today launched Bayonet Ocean Vehicles, a new company created to develop, manufacture, and distribute a line of amphibious robots recently acquired from C-2 Innovations Inc.The deal includes the acquisition of the IP and inventory of C-2 Innovations’ crawling robot product line. The robots have been rebranded and are launched to market as the Bayonet 150, Bayonet 250, and Bayonet 350 vehicles.Bayonet joins the Greensea group of companies as an independent entity managed by the Greensea Executive Team.

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), announced a partnership with autonomous maritime solutions company ThayerMahan for seabed and infrastructure survey and inspection work in the waters off southern Massachusetts.Based in Groton, Conn., ThayerMahan, specializes in seabed surveys, acoustic mitigation and monitoring, and other maritime related services and has facilities in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Vestdavit secured a contract with Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors to supply one of its HN-5000 workboat davits for each of the two vessels, NOAA ocean reasearch vessels. To be named Oceanographer and Discoverer, the ships are under construction for the NOAA at the Louisiana-based fabrication yard.The HN-5000 davits, due for delivery in mid-2023, are designed for reliable launch and recovery in variable sea states of workboats that will be used to carry out diverse missions ranging from general oceanographic research and exploration to marine life, climate and ocean ecosystem studies.

A group of companies working in the offshore energy industry are teaming up in an effort to fast-track the journey toward remotely managed services, including onshore remote operations centers and unmanned surface vehicles (USV).Solstad Offshore, DeepOcean Group and Østensjø Group have established and will share 33.33% stakes in two joint ventures (JV). One of them, Remota AS, will own and operate advanced onshore remote operations centers, while the other, USV AS, will develop…