DELIVERING MARINE SAFETY AND FISHERIES LIAISON BEST PRACTICE FOR OVER 35 YEARS

Guard Vessels

NFFO Services provide fishing vessels to act as guard boats for any offshore activity for the purpose of protecting vulnerable sub-sea or surface installations, including exposed cables and pipelines from the dangers arising from fishing activities or other marine traffic movements.

Our highly experienced and respected fishing skippers will ensure awareness of the dangers to masters/skippers of any vessel operating in the vicinity of the assets, thereby providing early and adequate warning to enable such vessels to take avoiding action.

We focus as far as possible on recruiting guard vessels that are endemic to the area of operation.  This ensures that skippers of guard vessels will generally have high levels of local knowledge and expertise.  This is often a crucial factor in ensuring a smooth-running operation.

All vessels comply with high health, safety and environmental standards.

All NFFO Services vessels are committed to the highest standards of safety:

  • All vessels are subject to annual external CMID/IMCA audits in addition to annual MCA & approved SWBC surveys.
  • Internal checks are carried out at regular intervals to ensure continued compliance with MCA load line or Small Workboat Code certification.
  • The crew are all fully certified to international maritime standards.
  • All operate under our Safeguard contract thereby ensuring shared responsibility towards each project.
  • All vessels are available for independent safety audits by any client.

All additional reasonable requirements by the client can be met.

There are broader mutual benefits to be gained from using fishing vessels as guard boats through the industry’s main representative body – access to additional vessels or a suitable replacement vessel in the event of a breakdown being just one.

For all offshore operations, there is the potential for disruption to one or both parties. By engaging a suitable guard vessel through the main Federation, it is seen as a positive step by operators. Such arrangements are viewed more favourably by most local skippers by the fact that:

  • Skippers generally co-operate more readily with one of their colleagues.
  • The client is helping to support their national representative body.
  • It provides an alternative means of income for a local vessel, easing any pressures on the fishing operation from any disruption resulting from the work.