#ports&shipping  - Wicklow based Alpha Marine are carrying out a dredging project off the UK south coast for an offshore windfarm project, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The vessel support and marine services company deployed the Husky, a twin screw shallow draft tug to conduct nearshore dredging support at the Rampion Offshore Windfarm.

Among the marine engineering plant involved in the project off the Sussex coast has been the ‘Spud’ barge Beluga. The vessel has been manoeuvred by Husky out of Shoreham Harbour which is a base for such operations. 

This has involved the dredging spread for the excavation and backfill of the trench for the export cable leading from the Rampion Offshore Windfarm.

#Charter - Alpha Marine, formerly Island Shipping, based in Wicklow, has seen the return of one of its wind-farm support vessels following a survey charter in the North Sea, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The water-jet propelled Island Panther had been working in the Waddenzee, an intertidal zone of the Ems Estuary located between The Netherlands and Germany. Along this coast are the Frisian /Wadden Islands, an archipelago that lies off these countries and stretches as far as Denmark.

Island Panther which also is a crew transfer vessel, was deployed from the Dutch port of Ijmuiden to conduct the survey zone. The 17m craft operated in the ultra-shallow waters of the survey site.