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Displaying items by tag: Irish Sea ferry sector

#FreightFerry– Irish Sea freight-ferry operator Seatruck Ferries has welcomed the UK government's granting of the Heysham link-road to the M6 motorway, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The new road will improve both the local transport infrastructure and access to the Lancashire port, reduce congestion and cut transport costs.

Work is expected to commence this July and will near completion in late 2015.

Seatruck has been working with other local interests to push for a direct link road to junction 34 of the M6. This will enable easier port traffic access to the motorway network without having to transit through Lancaster.

The origins of Seatruck began in 1996 with the introduction of un-accompanied freight trailer service between Warrenpoint -Heysham, and to specifically meet transportation needs of the haulage industry.

Since then the company has progressed considerably with more routes: Dublin-Liverpool and Dublin-Heysham and a fleet of freight roll-on roll-off ferries.

As previously reported throughout last year on Afloat.ie, Seatruck received a quartet of custom built 'Heysham-Max' new build tonnage delivered from a Germany shipyard.

The final 18,000 tonnes 'P' class newbuild Seatruck Precision entered service last July on the Dublin-Liverpool route.

The company operate more than 50 weekly departures transiting the short-sea network of routes between Ireland and the UK.

Serving this network are freight-ferries with a capacity ranging from 65-150 unaccompanied trailer units.

Some of the 12 strong fleet, are currently deployed on the charter market to other users in the Irish Sea and operating in waters beyond this market sector.

 

Published in Ferry

Marine Wildlife Around Ireland One of the greatest memories of any day spent boating around the Irish coast is an encounter with marine wildlife.  It's a thrill for young and old to witness seabirds, seals, dolphins and whales right there in their own habitat. As boaters fortunate enough to have experienced it will testify even spotting a distant dorsal fin can be the highlight of any day afloat.  Was that a porpoise? Was it a whale? No matter how brief the glimpse it's a privilege to share the seas with Irish marine wildlife.

Thanks to the location of our beautiful little island, perched in the North Atlantic Ocean there appears to be no shortage of marine life to observe.

From whales to dolphins, seals, sharks and other ocean animals this page documents the most interesting accounts of marine wildlife around our shores. We're keen to receive your observations, your photos, links and youtube clips.

Boaters have a unique perspective and all those who go afloat, from inshore kayaking to offshore yacht racing that what they encounter can be of real value to specialist organisations such as the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) who compile a list of sightings and strandings. The IWDG knowledge base has increased over the past 21 years thanks in part at least to the observations of sailors, anglers, kayakers and boaters.

Thanks to the IWDG work we now know we share the seas with dozens of species who also call Ireland home. Here's the current list: Atlantic white-sided dolphin, beluga whale, blue whale, bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin, Cuvier's beaked whale, false killer whale, fin whale, Gervais' beaked whale, harbour porpoise, humpback whale, killer whale, minke whale, northern bottlenose whale, northern right whale, pilot whale, pygmy sperm whale, Risso's dolphin, sei whale, Sowerby's beaked whale, sperm whale, striped dolphin, True's beaked whale and white-beaked dolphin.

But as impressive as the species list is the IWDG believe there are still gaps in our knowledge. Next time you are out on the ocean waves keep a sharp look out!