I.9.4 Marine safety and rescue

Who supplies them

Esvagt, MRT, Resolve Marine, Seacroft Marine, Systematic, Ultramap and Viking Life Saving Equipment.

In the UK NFFO Services, the commercial division of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, provides guard vessel services using the fishing vessels of its members.

Key facts

Safety is a crucial factor in any marine operation in offshore wind. All vessels carry and adhere to general safety and emergency response plans, both for general vessel activity and for project-specific activities. The vessel conducts frequent safety drills to ensure crew are prepared for emergencies.

Guard vessels are used on site to spot vessels which should not be there because they pose a risk to the assets or the activities taking place.

Various software solutions have been developed to assist the safe planning and tracking of marine activities. These include:

• Tracking the location of each member of the offshore workforce
• Planning and tracking the movement of vessels working on the project, and
• Tracking other vessels’ speed and location via Marine AIS data and proactively contacting the vessel or its owner should the activity suggest a risk from anchoring or collision.

Remote emergency medical services consist of a remote doctor or paramedic who can provide 24/7 support to onsite first aiders via voice and video calls. Actual rescue services for injured personnel are carried out by either small vessels or helicopters. Emergency medical and rescue service providers can cover multiple wind farms and developers.

New technologies are emerging to improve marine safety and rescue. This includes systems to automatically identify people in the water and technology to retrieve them onto a vessel.

What’s in it

• Emergency medical rescue services
• Emergency medical support services
• Guard vessels
• Specialist marine planning and tracking software