Norwegian Institute Of Marine Research News

While the adoption of unmanned/uncrewed surfaces vessels (USVs) was initially in defence, use of these low footprint systems has spread into other sectors, not least survey, and now the race is on for greater capability, endurance and autonomy. Elaine Maslin reports.After starting small, in inland waterways, use of USVs for survey operations has moved into coastal and now offshore waters. Given the extensive amount of seabed and rapid growth in offshore wind, there’s plenty of work out there for them to do.With the travel restrictions posed by Covid and increasing awareness of climate change…

Rolls-Royce is marking another milestone on the journey toward the completion of Britain’s new polar research vessel the RRS Sir David Attenborough being built by Merseyside shipyard Cammell Laird. The last of the vessel’s Bergen B33:45 engines/gensets have been craned into the ship’s hull at Cammell Laird ready to be connected to the RRS Sir David Attenborough’s Rolls-Royce propulsion system. The nine cylinder engines are carefully installed in three separate pieces. The first part of the nine cylinder engine to be craned into place was its double resilient foundation.

Gondan Shipyard in Figueras today launched a new fishery and oceanographic research vessel to be operated by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research of Bergen under a program led by NORAD, FAO and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The contract for the construction of this oceanographic vessel was signed in March last year and was awarded to Gondan Shipyard through an international tender, in which it competed with eight shipyards in Norway and one in Spain. Designed by the company Skipsteknisk…

Five nations set moratorium on fishing near North Pole; no fish there now, but thaw is drawing stocks north. The United States, Russia and other Arctic nations signed an agreement deal on Thursday to bar their fishing fleets from fast-thawing seas around the North Pole, an agreement delayed more than a year by tensions over Ukraine. The accord, also signed in Oslo by the ambassadors of Canada, Norway and Denmark, is a response to global warming, which is melting sea ice in the central Arctic Ocean, an area the size of the Mediterranean. The central Arctic probably has no commercial fish stocks now, experts say, but melting sea ice may draw fish such as cod farther north. Forty percent of the area was briefly open water when summer sea ice shrank to a record low in 2012.

Rolls-Royce has been awarded a contract by ship builder Fincantieri to supply a fully integrated propulsion system for Norway’s new Polar Research Vessel, which will carry out significant environmental research at the North and South Poles. The Rolls-Royce system includes gen-sets with a power electric system, a range of thrusters and automation and control systems. The vessel, to be named FF Kronprins Haakon, is a NVC 395 POLAR design from Rolls-Royce ordered by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research. Detailed design will be carried out by Fincantieri. It is designed to operate through rough ice conditions, and will be equipped to cover a wide range of marine research operations, such as monitoring fishing stocks, metrological studies, sea floor sampling and mapping.

Rolls-Royce informs it has been awarded a contract by shipbuilder Fincantieri to supply a fully integrated propulsion system for Norway’s new Polar Research Vessel, which will carry out environmental research at the North and South Poles. The Rolls-Royce system includes gensets with a power electric system, a range of thrusters and automation and control systems. The vessel, to be named FF Kronprins Haakon, is a NVC 395 POLAR design from Rolls-Royce ordered by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research. Detailed design will be carried out by Fincantieri.

Calecore opened office in Stavanger, Norway. The office is located on the quayside in the city centre with many of Calecore´s Oil and Gas clients within easy walking distance. In addition to serving as a meeting facility for clients, the office will also serve the crucial role of local presence to further strengthen Calecore´s position in the Norwegian market and involvement in the push towards the Barents Sea and the Arctic. “After completing a number of highly successful Norwegian contracts in 2012…

The Rogaland county public prosecutor notified Statoil on 18 December that it has been fined $4.26m following the oil leak from the Statfjord A loading buoy on 12 December 2007. “We have noted the public prosecutor’s decision,” said Thorstein Hole, vice president for the operations west cluster in Statoil. “We’ve made changes to the way we plan and implement modifications, strengthened the maintenance programme and adopted more secure routines for offshore loading,” Hole said. He notes that more than 20,000 offshore loading operations have been conducted on the NCS over the past 30 years, including 7,000 on Statfjord. “The measures we’ve adopted have enhanced loading robustness and security even further.

Northrop Grumman Corporation's Sperry Marine business unit has been selected to supply a state-of-the-art navigation and communication systems for the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR) and University of Bergen's new fisheries research ship in Norway, the G.O. Sars, which is named after a renowned Norwegian marine biologist. X- and S-Band BridgeMaster E 340 ARPA radars, ADG4000 self-tuning autopilot, dual SR2100 fiber optic gyrocompasses, repeaters and steering indicators, and a full A4 GMDSS communications package. The IBS consists of three workstations, which can be configured to display radar, ECDIS or conning information. The 3,800 gross ton vessel, being built at the Flekkefjord Slip & Mek shipyard, is scheduled to enter service in early 2003.