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Displaying items by tag: Marine Survey Office

The Marine Survey Office (MSO) of the Department of Transport has appointed four companies to the panel as Recognised Security Organisations (Ports) for the period covering 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028.

These companies appointed as RSOs for the creation of port security assessments, port facility security assessments, port security plans and port facility security plans are as follows:

CMG (Crime Management Group),
Regus House,
Harcourt Road,
Dublin,
D02 HW77
Tel: +353 1 417 4242
Email: [email protected]

Crime Management Services,
Block B, The Crescent Building,
Northwood, Santry,
Dublin D09 C6X8
Tel: +353 1 893 4906
Email: [email protected]

Bureau Veritas Marine and Offshore UK and Ireland
1 & 2, Keel House,
South Shields
NE34 9PY, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 191 427 8170
Email: [email protected]

Seaport Services Crann Centre,
Classis, Ovens,
Co Cork P31 TX39
Tel. +353 86 190 1913/+353 87 237 8103
Email: [email protected]

The appointment will cover work as an RSO in relation to both Regulation (EC) No 725/2004 and Directive 2005/65/EC on Port Security.

Published in Ports & Shipping

The Marine Survey Office (MSO) of the Department of Transport is seeking applications from interested parties who wish to act as Recognised Security Organisations - RSO (Ports) for the period from January 2024 to 31 December 2028.

The authorisation will cover work as an RSO in relation to both Regulation EC 725/2004 on enhancing ship and port facility security and Directive 2005/65/EC on enhancing port security.

The closing date for receipt of completed applications is 3pm on Tuesday 16 January 2024.

Requirements and conditions for application are set out in the annex of Marine Notice No 82 of 2023, attached below.

Completed applications should be returned to the Marine Survey Office by post, or by email to [email protected].

Published in Ports & Shipping

A new panel of authorised radio surveyors has been established by the Department of Transport following a call for applications this autumn.

The latest three-person panel — established from 21 October this year until further notice — replaces that established three years ago and will conduct statutory radio surveys on existing Irish seagoing vessels, including fishing vessels, at locations around the island of Ireland.

Owners/operators of vessels requiring a periodical or annual radio survey should contact a surveyor to arrange these surveys.

On completion of a survey, a surveyor from the panel will endorse the vessel’s certificate as appropriate and/or inform the Marine Survey Office (MSO) regarding any required statutory certificate.

The MSO will not issue statutory certificates to vessels that have not completed the required statutory radio survey.

Operators of cargo vessels requiring a radio survey (RO) should contact the vessel’s Recognised Organisation (RO) to utilise the RO’s radio survey services.

Providers of radio survey services wishing to be included in the Panel of Radio Surveyors should refer to Marine Notice No 63 of 2023 and contact the MSO accordingly.

The contact details for the panel are available on the department’s website and in Marine Notice No 73 of 2023, attached below.

Published in News Update

The Marine Survey Office (MSO) of the Irish Maritime Administration has completed a review of security risk assessments for vessels and ports engaged in domestic shipping operation on the Irish coast.

This review was conducted as part of the obligations under EU Regulation (EC) No 725/2004 – Enhancing Ship and Port Facility Security, which entered into force on 31 March 2004.

The objective of this Regulation is to introduce and implement measures aimed at enhancing the security of ships used in international and domestic trade, and associated port facilities within EU member states, in the face of threats of intentional unlawful acts.

Article 3.3 of the Regulation requires that member states shall, after a mandatory security risk assessment, decide the extent to which they will apply the provisions of this Regulation to different categories of ships operating on national domestic services, their companies and the port facilities serving them, and this is subject to periodic review.

Details of the maritime security measures to be applied as a result of this review are outlined in Marine Notice No 9 of 2023, which is available to read or download below. This notice supersedes Marine Notice No 61 of 2013 which is hereby revoked.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Owners and skippers of fishing vessels are reminded to apply for a Safe Manning Document from the Marine Survey Office at the Department of Transport.

Safe manning is an important factor in the safe operation of fishing vessels and takes account of the vessel’s operations, machinery and maintenance.

Since 19 December 2019, it has been a legal requirement for owners of sea-going fishing vessels, 15 metres in length or over, to ensure that the vessel is manned by a competent skipper and to apply to the Marine Survey Office for a Safe Manning Document.

A transitional period is in place to allow fishing vessel owners time to comply with the requirement for a safe manning document.

The deadline for applications is determined by the date of completion for the renewal of the fishing vessel safety certificate or certificate of compliance. The owner is also required to ensure that the fishing vessel is manned in line with the minimum requirements set out in the regulations.

The Marine Survey Office will consider the vessel’s operations, machinery and maintenance before issuing the Safe Manning Document.

Once the relevant transitional period is over (it will have already passed for some owners), it is against the law for a fishing vessel to go to sea without a Safe Manning Document on board, or for the vessel to be operated below the level set out in the Safe Manning Document.

Depending upon the qualifications of crew and proposed manning arrangements, the initial Safe Manning Document may only be valid for a period of two years.

Owners and skippers can apply for a Safe Manning Document by completing the application form (Form #1004.1) and returning it to the Marine Survey Office. There are guidance notes on the application form to assist owners and skippers.

Any queries should be directed to [email protected].

Published in Fishing

A new three-year panel of authorised radio surveyors has been established by the Department of Transport following a call for applications this autumn.

The latest three-person panel — who will sit until 20 October 2023 — will conduct statutory radio surveys on existing Irish seagoing vessels, including fishing vessels, at locations around the island of Ireland.

Owners/operators of vessels requiring a periodical or annual radio survey should contact a surveyor to arrange these surveys.

On completion of a survey, the surveyors will endorse the vessel’s certificate as appropriate and/or inform the Marine Survey Office (MSO) regarding any required statutory certificate.

The MSO will not issue statutory certificates to vessels that have not completed the required statutory radio survey.

Owners requiring an ‘initial’ radio survey, which includes all flag-in and new-build vessels, must contact the MSO, preferably by email at [email protected]

Operators of existing cargo vessels which are in class with a recognised organisation (RO) may continue to utilise the RO’s radio survey services, should they so decide.

Published in News Update

#Ports&Shipping - The Irish Examiner writes that the Marine Survey Office was not justified in issuing a detention order for a ship damaged while it was berthing in Greenore port, Co Louth, the High Court has ruled.

The Circuit Court had previously ruled the Marine Survey Office of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, was not justified in detaining the MV Cielo di Monaco, a Malta-registered bulk carrier owned by D'Amico Societádi Navigazione (DSN).

That court said, on the evidence before it, the vessel was not a clear hazard to safety, health or the environment.

The High Court's Mr Justice Denis McDonald agreed and refused an appeal against that decision by the Marine Survey Office (MSO).

The 180-metre long vessel entered Greenore on September 27, 2015, to discharge cargo. It was piloted in, as pilotage is compulsory in the privately-owned Greenore.

While dredging had been carried out at the port to provide a deep-water berth, it transpired no dredging had occurred in the inner area of the berth where the bulbous bow of the MV Cielo di Monaco berthed, the court heard.

The next morning, the crew notice an ingress of water and it was established there were cracks in the steel plating of the vessel from it having grounded in the lowering tide.

The Master of the vessel notified a number of bodies and organisations about the damage, including the Marine Casualty Investigation Board.

For further reading of this story, click here. 

Published in Ports & Shipping

#MCIB - The European Commission has questioned the independence of Ireland’s Maritime Casualty and Investigation Board.

According to The Irish Times, Brussels says the MCIB board “lacks the necessary independence” from the Department of Transport and the Marine Survey Office due to its inclusion of officials from both State bodies.

The EU suggests the MCIB is accordingly in breach of the 2009 EU directive on investigating “accidents in the maritime transport sector”, which mandates full indepdence and impartiality in its functions and decision-making.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in MCIB

#RadioSurvey - Further to this summer’s tender call for a panel of radio surveyors, the panel is now established and authors to conducts statutory radio surveys on Irish seagoing vessels, including fishing vessels.

Owners of vessels in the categories listed below requiring a periodical/annual radio survey should contact a Panel Radio Surveyor to arrange these surveys, which will be conducted from now till 20 October 2020:

  • Irish fishing vessels of 15 metres length overall or more.
  • Irish domestic trading passenger ships of Classes B, C, D, II(A), III and VI.
  • Irish domestic trading cargo vessels of 300GT or more, but less than 500GT.

On completion of the surveys, the panel surveyors will inform the Marine Survey Office (MSO) regarding the issue of any required statutory certificate to the vessel. The MSO will not issue statutory certificates to vessels that have not completed the required statutory radio survey.

Owners requiring an ‘initial’ radio survey, which includes all flag-in and new-build vessels, must contact the MSO, preferably by email at [email protected].

Where the statutory certificates for a vessel are issued by a recognised organisation on behalf of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the operator of the vessel should continue to utilise the services of the recognised organisation for the completion of statutory radio surveys.

The contact details for the Panel of Surveyors are available on the DTTAS website HERE.

The MSO is also appointing a panel to conduct surveys of fishing vessels of less than 15m length overall, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

Published in Ports & Shipping

#Fishing - The Marine Survey Office (MSO) of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS) wishes to appoint a panel of surveyors to conduct surveys of fishing vessels of less than 15m length overall, in accordance with the Code of Practice for such vessels.

For more information or to register your interest for this panel, see the published tender on the eTenders Public Procurement website.

The MSO will accept electronic responses to this notice via a 'Tender Submission Postbox' facility. Further details of this facility are available at the tender notice page on the eTenders website, under the Postbox tab.

The closing date for completed applications is Friday 10 November.

Published in Fishing
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Irish Fishing industry 

The Irish Commercial Fishing Industry employs around 11,000 people in fishing, processing and ancillary services such as sales and marketing. The industry is worth about €1.22 billion annually to the Irish economy. Irish fisheries products are exported all over the world as far as Africa, Japan and China.

FAQs

Over 16,000 people are employed directly or indirectly around the coast, working on over 2,000 registered fishing vessels, in over 160 seafood processing businesses and in 278 aquaculture production units, according to the State's sea fisheries development body Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM).

All activities that are concerned with growing, catching, processing or transporting fish are part of the commercial fishing industry, the development of which is overseen by BIM. Recreational fishing, as in angling at sea or inland, is the responsibility of Inland Fisheries Ireland.

The Irish fishing industry is valued at 1.22 billion euro in gross domestic product (GDP), according to 2019 figures issued by BIM. Only 179 of Ireland's 2,000 vessels are over 18 metres in length. Where does Irish commercially caught fish come from? Irish fish and shellfish is caught or cultivated within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but Irish fishing grounds are part of the common EU "blue" pond. Commercial fishing is regulated under the terms of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), initiated in 1983 and with ten-yearly reviews.

The total value of seafood landed into Irish ports was 424 million euro in 2019, according to BIM. High value landings identified in 2019 were haddock, hake, monkfish and megrim. Irish vessels also land into foreign ports, while non-Irish vessels land into Irish ports, principally Castletownbere, Co Cork, and Killybegs, Co Donegal.

There are a number of different methods for catching fish, with technological advances meaning skippers have detailed real time information at their disposal. Fisheries are classified as inshore, midwater, pelagic or deep water. Inshore targets species close to shore and in depths of up to 200 metres, and may include trawling and gillnetting and long-lining. Trawling is regarded as "active", while "passive" or less environmentally harmful fishing methods include use of gill nets, long lines, traps and pots. Pelagic fisheries focus on species which swim close to the surface and up to depths of 200 metres, including migratory mackerel, and tuna, and methods for catching include pair trawling, purse seining, trolling and longlining. Midwater fisheries target species at depths of around 200 metres, using trawling, longlining and jigging. Deepwater fisheries mainly use trawling for species which are found at depths of over 600 metres.

There are several segments for different catching methods in the registered Irish fleet – the largest segment being polyvalent or multi-purpose vessels using several types of gear which may be active and passive. The polyvalent segment ranges from small inshore vessels engaged in netting and potting to medium and larger vessels targeting whitefish, pelagic (herring, mackerel, horse mackerel and blue whiting) species and bivalve molluscs. The refrigerated seawater (RSW) pelagic segment is engaged mainly in fishing for herring, mackerel, horse mackerel and blue whiting only. The beam trawling segment focuses on flatfish such as sole and plaice. The aquaculture segment is exclusively for managing, developing and servicing fish farming areas and can collect spat from wild mussel stocks.

The top 20 species landed by value in 2019 were mackerel (78 million euro); Dublin Bay prawn (59 million euro); horse mackerel (17 million euro); monkfish (17 million euro); brown crab (16 million euro); hake (11 million euro); blue whiting (10 million euro); megrim (10 million euro); haddock (9 million euro); tuna (7 million euro); scallop (6 million euro); whelk (5 million euro); whiting (4 million euro); sprat (3 million euro); herring (3 million euro); lobster (2 million euro); turbot (2 million euro); cod (2 million euro); boarfish (2 million euro).

Ireland has approximately 220 million acres of marine territory, rich in marine biodiversity. A marine biodiversity scheme under Ireland's operational programme, which is co-funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Government, aims to reduce the impact of fisheries and aquaculture on the marine environment, including avoidance and reduction of unwanted catch.

EU fisheries ministers hold an annual pre-Christmas council in Brussels to decide on total allowable catches and quotas for the following year. This is based on advice from scientific bodies such as the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. In Ireland's case, the State's Marine Institute publishes an annual "stock book" which provides the most up to date stock status and scientific advice on over 60 fish stocks exploited by the Irish fleet. Total allowable catches are supplemented by various technical measures to control effort, such as the size of net mesh for various species.

The west Cork harbour of Castletownbere is Ireland's biggest whitefish port. Killybegs, Co Donegal is the most important port for pelagic (herring, mackerel, blue whiting) landings. Fish are also landed into Dingle, Co Kerry, Rossaveal, Co Galway, Howth, Co Dublin and Dunmore East, Co Waterford, Union Hall, Co Cork, Greencastle, Co Donegal, and Clogherhead, Co Louth. The busiest Northern Irish ports are Portavogie, Ardglass and Kilkeel, Co Down.

Yes, EU quotas are allocated to other fleets within the Irish EEZ, and Ireland has long been a transhipment point for fish caught by the Spanish whitefish fleet in particular. Dingle, Co Kerry has seen an increase in foreign landings, as has Castletownbere. The west Cork port recorded foreign landings of 36 million euro or 48 per cent in 2019, and has long been nicknamed the "peseta" port, due to the presence of Spanish-owned transhipment plant, Eiranova, on Dinish island.

Most fish and shellfish caught or cultivated in Irish waters is for the export market, and this was hit hard from the early stages of this year's Covid-19 pandemic. The EU, Asia and Britain are the main export markets, while the middle Eastern market is also developing and the African market has seen a fall in value and volume, according to figures for 2019 issued by BIM.

Fish was once a penitential food, eaten for religious reasons every Friday. BIM has worked hard over several decades to develop its appeal. Ireland is not like Spain – our land is too good to transform us into a nation of fish eaters, but the obvious health benefits are seeing a growth in demand. Seafood retail sales rose by one per cent in 2019 to 300 million euro. Salmon and cod remain the most popular species, while BIM reports an increase in sales of haddock, trout and the pangasius or freshwater catfish which is cultivated primarily in Vietnam and Cambodia and imported by supermarkets here.

The EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), initiated in 1983, pooled marine resources – with Ireland having some of the richest grounds and one of the largest sea areas at the time, but only receiving four per cent of allocated catch by a quota system. A system known as the "Hague Preferences" did recognise the need to safeguard the particular needs of regions where local populations are especially dependent on fisheries and related activities. The State's Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, based in Clonakilty, Co Cork, works with the Naval Service on administering the EU CFP. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and Department of Transport regulate licensing and training requirements, while the Marine Survey Office is responsible for the implementation of all national and international legislation in relation to safety of shipping and the prevention of pollution.

Yes, a range of certificates of competency are required for skippers and crew. Training is the remit of BIM, which runs two national fisheries colleges at Greencastle, Co Donegal and Castletownbere, Co Cork. There have been calls for the colleges to be incorporated into the third-level structure of education, with qualifications recognised as such.

Safety is always an issue, in spite of technological improvements, as fishing is a hazardous occupation and climate change is having its impact on the severity of storms at sea. Fishing skippers and crews are required to hold a number of certificates of competency, including safety and navigation, and wearing of personal flotation devices is a legal requirement. Accidents come under the remit of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board, and the Health and Safety Authority. The MCIB does not find fault or blame, but will make recommendations to the Minister for Transport to avoid a recurrence of incidents.

Fish are part of a marine ecosystem and an integral part of the marine food web. Changing climate is having a negative impact on the health of the oceans, and there have been more frequent reports of warmer water species being caught further and further north in Irish waters.

Brexit, Covid 19, EU policies and safety – Britain is a key market for Irish seafood, and 38 per cent of the Irish catch is taken from the waters around its coast. Ireland's top two species – mackerel and prawns - are 60 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively, dependent on British waters. Also, there are serious fears within the Irish industry about the impact of EU vessels, should they be expelled from British waters, opting to focus even more efforts on Ireland's rich marine resource. Covid-19 has forced closure of international seafood markets, with high value fish sold to restaurants taking a large hit. A temporary tie-up support scheme for whitefish vessels introduced for the summer of 2020 was condemned by industry organisations as "designed to fail".

Sources: Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Marine Institute, Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, Department of Transport © Afloat 2020