Marine Notice No 20 of 2021 reminds owners, skippers and crew of fishing vessels of the requirement for crew lists on all registered fishing vessels.

Article 12 of the Annex to Council Directive (EU) 2017/159 — which aims to implement the Work in Fishing Convention, which in turn aims to ensure decent work and living conditions in the fishing sector — requires that every fishing vessel carry a crew list.

The European Union (International Labour Organisation Work in Fishing Convention) (Crew List and Fisherman’s Work Agreement) Regulations, 2020 (SI No 333 of 2020), were signed into law on 1 September 2020. Regulation 5 of SI No 333 of 2020 implements Article 12 of the Annex to the Directive and sets out the requirement in relation to crew lists.

The regulations place a responsibility on every registered fishing vessel to carry a crew list which shall be communicated ashore by the master, either prior to the departure of a fishing vessel or immediately after the departure of a fishing vessel. They also specify the minimum mandatory contents of the crew list and also to whom the crew list shall be communicated.

Full details of the requirements are included in Marine Notice No 20 of 2021, a PDF of which is available to download below.

The latest Marine Notice from the Department of Transport reminds seafarers of the important of passage planning and regular weather forecast checks during voyages.

It comes following the recommendations in the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) report into the rescue of five sailors from the yacht Loa Zour amid severe storm conditions off the Spanish coast in June 2019.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, a crew from Kinsale Yacht Club were rescued from the 40ft yacht on 6 June 2019 just days after they had set out from West Cork for the Spanish port of A Coruña, after experiencing extreme conditions amid the surprise Storm Miguel.

The MCIB report found that while the storm was “an unusual and unexpected weather event”, and the skipper of the Loa Our “showed good judgement in his decision and actions in broadcasting a Mayday distress VHF transmission and activating the vessel’s EPIRB”, he was also unaware of the details of the Code of Practice for the Safe Operation of Recreational Craft and the requirement to submit a passage plan to a shore-based authority.

“If the basic tenets of the passage plan had been observed in detail with respect to updated weather forecasting during the voyage, observing the limitations of the boat design capability and staying within reach of a safe haven by taking a more circuitous route around the coastline of the Bay of Biscay, then the crew of yacht Loa Zour may have been better prepared before encountering Storm Miguel 85 [nautical miles] north of A Coruña,” the report states.

Marine Notice No 19 of 2021 highlights the relevant advice contained within the Code of Practice and related Marine Notices, and can be downloaded below.

The Department of Transport has launched a public consultation on matters relating to an independent review of the current organisational structures underpinning marine casualty investigation in Ireland.

The move follows Transport Minister Eamon Ryan’s promise earlier this year to undertake a “fundamental review” of the process of how marine accidents are investigated here.

The consultation period runs from today, Monday 29 March, to Wednesday 21 April and has the key objectives of:

• Assessing the current organisational structures for marine casualty investigation in Ireland; and
• Setting out in a report to the minister any recommendations, including in relation to change, to achieve the most appropriate and effective structures for Ireland, taking into account national, EU and international obligations.

Full details of the consultation are available on Gov.ie and more information can be found in Marine Notice No 18 of 2021, a PDF of which is available to download below.

The Department of Transport has been advised that a marine geophysical survey will be carried out from 5-30 May southwest of Rockall Plateau and across the Porcupine Abyssal Plain and Porcupine Seabight.

This survey is part of the Irish marine research programme project PORO-CLIM and is being carried out with the support of the EU Eurofleets+ programme (Project PORO-CLIM, Survey Code CE21008).

The survey will be conducted by the RV Celtic Explorer (callsign EIGB). The vessel will display appropriate lights and signals. All survey operations are 24 hours, continuous over day and night.

The vessel will on occasion be towing a hydrophone cable and other equipment up to a maximum of 1,000 metres behind the vessel. The vessel will be restricted in its movements when towing a cable astern.

Full details of coordinates for these survey works are included in Marine Notice No 17 of 2021, a PDF of which can be downloaded below.

The next leg of this year’s Irish Anglerfish and Megrim Survey (IAMS 2021) will be carried out from 10-21 April off the North and North West coasts.

The IAMS is carried out by the Marine Institute in fulfilment of Ireland’s obligations under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

A demersal trawl survey, April’s leg will consist of some 50 otter trawls of 60 minutes’ duration in ICES area 6a.

Fishing will take place within a three-nautical-mile radius of the positions indicated in Appendix 1 and 2 of Marine Notice No 15 of 2021, a PDF of which can be downloaded below.

The survey will be conducted from the RV Celtic Explorer (callsign EIGB) which will be towing a Jackson demersal trawl and will display appropriate lights and signals.

All marine operators, especially those engaged in commercial fishing, are requested to keep a 3mn area around the indicated tow points clear of any gear or apparatus during the survey period.

The Department of Transport has confirmed limited exemptions for maritime crews from mandatory hotel quarantine for those entering the State from high-risk countries, which comes into effect from tomorrow, Friday 26 March.

As detailed in Marine Notice No 16 of 2021 (which can be downloaded below), maritime crew are considered to be in the course of their work until they reach their home, having completed their duties on board.

It is recommended that seafarers arriving to Ireland to join a ship have in their possession evidence such as joining instructions from their employer or crewing agency.

In addition, it is recommended that seafarers leaving a ship abroad to return to Ireland are in possession of their seafarer’s discharge book that has been appropriately signed off by the ship as proof they have just completed their time aboard a vessel and are returning immediately home.

Another exemption is for anyone classed as an international transport workers, defined as a person who holds a valid Annex 3 Certificate in accordance with the Communication from the EU Commission on the implementation of the Green Lanes under the guidance for border management measures to protect health and ensure the availability of goods and ensure services.

While maritime crew are generally exempt from the travel restriction requirements, this does not extend to crew involved in the operation of pleasure craft not engaged in trade, as such journeys are considered non-essential.

Any crew arriving in Ireland working aboard such a craft are required to adhere to all of the relevant travel restrictions as appropriate, including completion of a passenger locator form, pre-departure RT-PCR test taken 72 hours prior to arrival and mandatory hotel quarantine where applicable. Breach of these legal obligations is an offence.

Further information in relation to travel restrictions in Ireland is available from gov.ie.

Owners/operators of international ferries serving Ireland are legally required to inform passengers of their obligations in relation to travel restrictions currently in place in Ireland.

They are also required to check each passenger has evidence of a negative/not-detected result from a RT-PCR test taken 72 hours prior to arrival in the State and to deny boarding to the passenger if such evidence is not produced.

In addition, there is a now a requirement to ensure that any passenger subject to mandatory hotel quarantine has made the necessary booking in advance of travel and to deny boarding if a relevant passenger cannot produce such evidence.

Masters are also requested to make on-board announcements detailing the legal requirement for passengers to complete the passenger locator form before disembarking and to ask passengers to have the form ready for collection by immigration officers.

TechWorks Marine advises that it is set to deploy two marine monitoring buoys in Tralee Bay as part of environmental oceanographic monitoring for Fenit Harbour.

The DB 500 data buoys will be deployed tomorrow, Friday 26 March, weather depending, and will be in place until at least Friday 30 April, after which they will be retrieved by a chartered vessel.

A flat-bottomed aqua-cultural work barge named the Kerry Pearl will be deploying the buoys. During deployment and recovery, VHF Channels monitored will be Channel 14 (Fenit Harbour working channel) and Channel 16.

During the extent of deployment, vessel traffic will need to avoid the area.

Full details including exact location coordinates are included in Marine Notice No 14 of 2021, which can be downloaded below.

The Department of Transport has been advised that the MOVE 2 Survey of the mobility of sediment waves and sand banks will be carried out from this Friday 26 to next Tuesday 30 March in the Irish Sea between Wicklow and Wexford.

This survey is being carried out in support of ongoing research at the SFI Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine research and innovation (MaREI) and the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG).

It will involve the use of multi-beam echo sounders and sub-bottom profilers at various sites, and sediment grabs samples will also be taken.

The survey will be carried out by the RV Celtic Voyager (callsign EIQN). The vessel will display appropriate lights and signals. Work will be performed on a 24-hour schedule.

Sediment sampling using cores will be carried out during daylight hours due to limited ship mobility. Acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) units will be deployed and retrieved at both night and day as dictated by survey conditions and will be adequately marked.

Full details of the survey areas are included in Marine Notice No 13 of 2021, a PDF of which is available to download below.

PSE Kinsale Energy advises that it is engaging in works to decommission subsea wells at the Southwest Kinsale, Seven Heads and Ballycotton gasfields from this week for the next eight months.

Weather depending, advance works were set to begin between today, Monday 22 and Wednesday 24 March ahead of the arrival of the work vessel Stena Spey next month.

Stena Spey (callsign GCWP) is a Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) which will be first deployed to the Southwest Kinsale Gasfield for a period of some 90 days, where it will be positioned using eight pre-laid anchors, before moving on to the Seven Heads field.

Anchor handling vessels MV Maersk Maker (callsign OZGO2) and MV Maersk Marine (callsign OWGQ2) will accompany the Stena Spey throughout the well abandonment campaign.

Other work vessels of note are the ad-hoc anchor handling vessel MV Maersk Lancer (callsign OUHX2) and standby vessel MV VOS Pathfinder (callsign 2ALO7). All will listen on VHF Channel 16 throughout the operation.

Further details on the campaign, including the locations of rigs and anchor positions, are included in Marine Notice No 12 of 2021, a PDF of which can be downloaded below.

The latest Marine Notice from the Department of Transport calls on the owners, operators, skippers and crews of fishing vessels to prepare passage plans as well as contingencies or groundings or collisions.

It comes in the wake of recommendations from the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) in its report on an incident involving the FV Dearbhla in the Blasket Islands in May last year.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the 23-metre trawler ran struck rocks near Inis na Bró on 14 May 2020 while no crew member was alert at the helm.

It emerged that the vessel had no tea-maker in the wheelhouse, so the crew member on watch had gone to his bunk to make tea and failed to turn on the watch alarm on his return, and fell asleep shortly after — meaning that a required course correction on approach to the Blaskets was not made.

In response to the report’s findings and recommendations, Marine Notice No 11 of 2021 reminds all fishing vessel owners, operators, skippers and crew:

• To ensure all navigation is planned in adequate detail and that passage plans, with contingency plans where appropriate, are compiled and made known to the crew of the vessel. Afloat.ie has more HERE.
• To develop contingency plans and procedures for a grounding event or collision incident, as previously highlighted on Afloat.ie.

The department also wishes to remind all of the statutory requirements pertaining to training, drills and musters, as well as the reporting obligations for incidents at sea.

Full details can be found in Marine Notice No 11 of 2021, a PDF of which can be downloaded below.