Geophysical surveys will be undertaken in the Irish Sea off the Wicklow and Wexford coast in the coming weeks to provide site investigation information for the development of the Arklow Bank Wind Park 2 project.
The survey campaign will involve the use of non-intrusive seismic, multibeam echosounder, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler and magnetometer surveys to acquire data.
This survey work is anticipated to run from Wednesday 26 June to the end of September, subject to weather and operational constraints.
The survey campaign will be confined to the proposed Arklow Bank Wind Park 2 Foreshore Licence area and focused on the offshore export cable routes from landfall and the array area.
The Arklow Bank area is located around 3–7 nautical miles off the coast of counties Wicklow and Wexford and consists of a north-south trending sandbank around 12nm in length and sub-parallel to the coastline between Ardmore point and Kilmichael point.
Operations will be conducted by the vessels Roman Rebel (callsign 2ICA5) and Lady Kathleen (callsign EIXT2) as well as four XOCEAN uncrewed surface vessels (USVs): X17 (callsign MKMB4), X22 (callsign MMIM7), X09 (callsign MHIJ8) and X21 (callsign MLUL2).
As the survey vessels will be restricted in their ability to manoeuvre when surveying, due to the deployment of the towed survey equipment for the duration of the survey activities, all vessels operating within this area are requested to keep their distance and pass at minimum speed to reduce vessel wash.
Work will be conducted 24/7 on board the Roman Rebel and USVs, with 12-hr operations on board the Lady Kathleen. Mariners are advised to keep continuous watch on VHF Channel 16 when navigating the area. The vessels will display appropriate lights and signals.
A map and coordinates of the survey area as well as contact information can be found in Marine Notice No 35 of 2024, attached below.