Planned works on the Portrane Pre-Lay Shore End installation for the Rockabill Subsea Cable are being carried out from the coast of Portrane, Co Dublin.

Scheduled to start yesterday. Monday 1 July, they will continue to next Wednesday 10 July. During this first Pre-lay Shore End phase of the project, the cable will be installed and buried in the Irish Sea by the utility vessel Roxane Z (Callsign FIRJ).

The vessel will monitor VHF Channel 16 at all times. All vessels, particularly those engaged in fishing, are requested to give the Roxane Z a wide berth and keep a sharp lookout in the relevant areas.

Details and co-ordinates of the work area are included in Marine Notice No 20 of 2019, a PDF of which is available to read or download HERE.

Another recent Marine Notice includes an updated schedule of examinations for the Certificate of Competency for Deck Officers, Marine Engineer Officers, Skippers and Second Hands, commencing Monday 2 September this year.

A series of ecological surveys will take place in the Irish Sea off the Dublin and Wicklow coast between now and May next year to provide data on seabirds and marine mammal species to inform the development of the Dublin Array Wind Farm.

The survey dates are weather dependent but will comprise a survey in each calendar month until May 2020, commencing tomorrow (Monday 24 June), with additional monthly surveys this August and September.

The location of the surveys will be off the Dublin and Wicklow coast in the vicinity of the Kish and Bray Banks. Surveys will be undertaken in daylight hours and each will usually be completed over a period of two days.

For the initial survey, the work vessel will not be towing survey equipment. During subsequent surveys the vessels may be towing a hydrophone up to 100m astern and will be restricted in their ability to manoeuvre. Vessels are requested to leave a wide berth.

Details of co-ordinates of the survey areas, and relevant work vessels, are included in Marine Notice No 18 of 2019, a PDF of which is available to read or download HERE.

Waterways Ireland has issued Marine Notices related to a number of events taking place on Ireland’s inland waterways this weekend.

On the Royal Canal, a Junior Canoe Polo Competition will take place at Kilcock Harbour from 10am to 6pm tomorrow, Saturday 22 June.

Passage will be possible between 1pm and 2pm. Masters of other craft are requested to proceed at slow speed and with minimum wash and note any directions issued by the stewards.

On the Shannon-Erne Waterway, masters and owners of vessels are advised that they may experience short-term delays between Lock 1 at Corraquill and Ballyconnell Marina between 1pm and 6.30pm tomorrow due to the waterway’s 25th anniversary event.

Masters are requested to proceed at slow speed and heed any instructions issued by the event marshals.

Elsewhere on the River Shannon, the swimming element of a triathlon event will take place in Tarmonbarry on Sunday 23 June between 9.30am and noon.

Tarmonbarry lock will be closed to traffic during this time, and the N5 Shannon lifting bridge will also be closed, requiring large airdraft vessels to berth north of the bridge for the period.

A children’s swimming event will take place at 6pm on Saturday in Tarmonbarry, but this will not affect vessels in the navigation.

Masters are requested to proceed at slow speed and with minimum wash when approaching this section of the river and heed any instructions issued by the event marshals.

Meanwhile, on Upper Lough Erne, masters and owners of vessels are advised that dredging works are due to commence at Kilmore Quay on Monday 1 July and last for approximately nine weeks.

The map below shows the area to be dredged and the route the vessels will be taking in order to bottom-dump the material.

Masters of vessel are requested to proceed with additional caution in the vicinity of the dredging operations and dredging vessels.

Waterways Ireland thanks its customers for their co-operation in this and all other matters.

In response to the recent MCIB report on a fatal incident involving a fishing vessel in Galway Bay in November 2017, the latest Marine Notice from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS) related to the safety of small vessels engaged in pot fishing.

The notice is directed at users of vessels less than 15m in length:

• Those engaged in non-commercial potting are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the Code of Practice for the Safe Operation of Recreational Craft and to comply with the statutory requirements highlighted by the Code, and heed the safety advice and recommendations of the Code.
• Those engaged in commercial potting should comply with the Code of Practice for the Design, Construction, Equipment and Operation of Small Fishing Vessels of less than 15m length overall. The Code sets out requirements and recommendations relating to safety on board small fishing vessels.

In addition, the DTTAS reminds users of small vessels that:

• Suitable personal flotation devices (PFDs) and personal locator beacons (PLBs) should always be worn.
• Somebody ashore should be aware of where the boat is intending to operate and when it is expected to return.
• Vessels should have a suitable means of re-boarding in the event of a crew member falling overboard.

The DTTAS said it wishes to highlight the increased risks involved with single-person operation of such vessels.

Owners/skippers should carry out a risk assessment of the intended operations and take appropriate actions to reduce and/or mitigate the inherent risks that arise when nobody else is on board to render assistance or to raise the alarm.

The German University of Bremen and the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) have successfully deployed two scientific deep-sea moorings (called EB-1 and EB-3) at Goban Spur off the southwestern Irish shelf, similar to those deployed in 2016 and again last year.

The deep-sea moorings, which were deployed between 24 and 25 May, will stay in the water for a period of about 13-14 months (to June/July 2020).

Both have been anchored by ~1,000kg bottom weights. Scientific instruments are attached at different depths to ropes and chains. Sub-surface floatation bodies will keep the moorings upright.

The location of the deep-sea moorings is detailed in Marine Notice No 16 of 2019, a PDF of which is available to read or download HERE.

As this is sensitive scientific equipment, it is kindly requested that fishermen and marine operators engaged in such activities as bottom trawling or laying of static gear avoid the locations concerned to avoid damaging the equipment or damaging fishing gear.

None of the moorings has a surface element or surface buoy. The shallowest elements are located at depths of 700m (mooring EB-1) and 500m (mooring EB-3).

Top elements and floatation bodies have orange or yellow colours. The top elements of mooring EB-1 carries a flag.

Both moorings are equipped with radio and Iridium/Argos beacons that only signal, once the top element is at the surface.

Marine Notice No 14 of 2019 advises that a cable repair for Emerald Bridge Fibres Limited (aka EBFL) is being conducted in the Irish Sea off the coast of Co Dublin.

Operations were scheduled to begin at 7pm on Saturday 1 June and will continue till 3am next Saturday 8 June.

The location of these operations is bounded by the following co-ordinates:

A yellow buoy will be moored around Lat 53° 29.09’ N and Long 005° 51.35’ W.

The cable repair will be conducted by the Cable Ship (C/S) Pierre De Fermat (Callsign FIIZ). All vessels are requested to give the Cable Ship a wide berth of at least one nautical mile.

Marine Notice No 13 of 2019 advises that a pre-lay grapnel run and route clearance operations will be conducted in Irish waters for three days from tomorrow, Friday 31 May, to Sunday 2 June as part of installation of the marine part of the Havhingsten submarine fibre optic cable system.

The operations schedule is provisional, and will be subject to change due to external factors, including but not limited to weather, equipment or vessel downtime.

The location of the pre-lay grapnel run in Irish waters is indicated by Seg 1.1 in the map featured above, between Lat 53° 50.9' N, Long 004° 59.4' W and Lat 53° 38.6' N, Long 005° 40.5' W.

The pre-lay grapnel run will be completed by the cable ship Ile d’Aix (Callsign FICI). The vessel will be linked to the bottom by the cable and will have poor manoeuvrability capacities. It will signal that it has restricted ability to manoeuvre with shapes and/or lights as required by international regulations.

All vessels are requested to keep a clear distance from the cable laying vessel of at least 0.5 nautical miles. The cable laying vessel will broadcast regular safety messages giving its current position and activity.

The Defence Forces are currently conducting surface live firing practice shoots off West Cork, as per Marine Notice No 12 of 2019.

The practice shoots from today, Tuesday 28 May, to Thursday 30 May are taking place in Danger Area D13, in the coastal area south-south-west of Cork between Seven Heads and Galley Head and to seaward from 8am to 5pm daily.

The Danger Area comprises the sea area contained within the co-ordinates. The co-ordinates of area D13 are as follows:

For the periods while the range is active, this sea area is out of bounds to all vessels. A Naval Service patrol vessel will enforce the Danger Area D13.

All vessels are advised that they are required to remain outside of the exclusion zone whilst the range is active, and are also recommended to carefully monitor the Radio Navigation Warnings that will be broadcast during the firing period.

Hydrographic and geophysical surveys will be undertaken in the Irish Sea off the Wicklow coast between June and September 2019 to provide bathymetric and subsurface information to facilitate the development of the Arklow Bank Wind Park.

The survey dates are weather dependent but are anticipated to start in June and be completed by the end of September.

The location of the surveys will be off the Wicklow coastline. They will be completed using two vessels working in parallel across the site. The vessels involved are the AMS Panther (Callsign: 2EHC2), which is a 17m windfarm support catamaran, and the AMS Retriever (Callsign: MEHI8) which is a versatile multi-purpose shallow draft tug.

Both vessels will be engaged in survey operations and will be restricted in their ability to manoeuvre. The vessels will be towing survey equipment up to 100 metres astern. Vessels are requested to leave a wide berth. The vessels will be operating 24 hours per day during survey works.

Details of the survey area and relevant co-ordinates are included in Marine Notice No 11 of 2019, a PDF of which is available to read or download HERE.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS) has issued a new advisory over the risk of vessels becoming entangled in ropes used in pot fishing.

Marine Notice No 10 of 2019 supersedes No 26 of 2016 and reminds all vessel owners, agents, shipmasters, skippers, fishers, yachtsmen, seafarers and those engaged in pot fishing about the risks of vessels’ propellers becoming entangled in ropes of marker buoys used to indicate the position of pots used for fishing lobster, crab, or other fish or shellfish.

This can occur because the length of rope used to fix marker buoys is too long, resulting in the line floating on or just below the surface.

The use of too long a line of rope can result in a situation where even vessels that have taken a wide berth around marker buoys could have their propellers fouled by the rope.

In addition, the DTTAS reminds those engaged in pot fishing not to use unsuitable ‘floats’ (eg empty drink cans, plastic bottles, dark-coloured floats, etc) which offer poor visibility and/or could be mistaken for floating debris.

Fishers who carry out pot fishing (whether commercially or non-commercially) are reminded of their obligation to other users of the sea.

Furthermore, non-commercial pot fishers are reminded of the regulations made by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine covering such activity (SI No 31 of 2016 Non-Commercial Pot Fishing (Lobster and Crab) Regulations 2016), which inter alia limits the numbers of pots permitted per boat to a maximum of six, and such pot fishing to the months of May to September.

Any mariners who spot any marker buoys/ropes (or any other object) in the water, which is deemed to represent a danger to navigation, should communicate information on same to other vessels in the area and to the Irish Coast Guard or to the local competent authority so that a hazard warning can be issued if appropriate, and any required follow-up action can be taken.

A guide for fishers and other users entitled ‘Good Practice Guide to Pots and Marker Buoys’ is included in the annex of Marine Notice No 10 of 2019, a PDF of which is available to read or download HERE.