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#COASTAL NOTES - BBC News reports that construction has begun on a new observation tower on the Lancashire coastline with views over the Irish Sea.

The new tower at Rossall Point, which will reach 14 metres (46ft) upon completion, will act as a base for the UK's National Coastwatch Institution.

A platform at the top will be open to the public providing ample vistas of the Irish Sea's marine wildlife for birdwatchers and more, while the view from the top will also be projected on a screen in the education centre to be located in the tower's ground floor.

Published in Coastal Notes

#IRISH HARBOURS - The latest Marine Notice from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS) advises on construction works at Castletownbere Fishery Harbour Centre in Co Cork this week.

The works involve the installation of four steel piles - two in the navigation channel to the inner harbour and two to the west of Dinish Pier.

The works are being advanced by civil engineering crews working from a jack-up barge, which will display the relevant day signals and navigation lights in accordance with collision regulations.

For safety reasons, mariners are requested to proceed slowly and with caution in the approach channel to the Fishery Harbour Centre and to give the works a wide berth. Wave-wash from vessels should also be avoided.

These works are expected to be on-going until mid-December, weather permitting.

Complete details for shipowners, ship operations, shipmasters and seafarers are included in Marine Notice No 57 of 2011, a PDF of which is available to read and download HERE.

Published in Irish Harbours
A US$2 billion-plus contract to work in the Gorgon gas fields project in Western Australia has gone to Irish oil company Kentz, the Irish Echo reports.
The work involves support in various aspects of the construction of three processing plants for liquefied natural gas from the Greater Gorgon fields - some 130km from the northwest coast of Western Australia - with a total annual capacity of 15 million tonnes.
According to Kentz, the contract will create more than 1,650 jobs for construction personnel in Western Australia.
The Irish Echo has more on the story HERE.

A US$2 billion-plus contract to work in the Gorgon gas fields project in Western Australia has gone to Irish oil company Kentz, the Irish Echo reports.

The work involves support in various aspects of the construction of three processing plants for liquefied natural gas from the Greater Gorgon fields - some 130km from the northwest coast of Western Australia - with a total annual capacity of 15 million tonnes.

According to Kentz, the contract will create more than 1,650 jobs for construction personnel in Western Australia.

The Irish Echo has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).