A geotechnical survey will shortly be undertaken in the Irish Sea off the Wicklow coast to provide site investigation information to facilitate the development of the Arklow Bank Wind Park.

The survey work is anticipated to start at the end of May and be completed by the end of August, weather depending.

The survey will be conducted by DEME vessel Neptune (callsign LXNP), a 60.25m dynamically positioned specialist survey vessel (current draught 7.19m, beam 38m), and will include approximately eight boreholes which will be drilled at discrete locations within the survey area.

The vessel will be operating 24 hours per day during survey works. As this vessel will be restricted in its ability to manoeuvre when surveying, all other vessels are requested to leave a wide berth.

Details of survey area coordinates and more can be found in Marine Notice No 28 of 2022, attached below.

The North Irish Sea Array (NISA) offshore wind farm project is to undertake a geophysical survey campaign on the proposed array area off the coast of North Co Dublin, Meath and Louth.

It follows the benthic survey campaign completed earlier this month and is expected to take place between Friday 27 May and the end of June, weather permitting.

The survey campaign will be confined to the proposed NISA OWF array area. This area forms an irregular shape spanning 32km north-south and 14km east-west at its widest point. At its closest location, near Rush in Co Dublin, the survey site is 7.4km from the coastline.

The survey will be conducted by the survey vessel Fugro Mercator (callsign C6DU5) using utilise multibeam echo sounders, sub-bottom profilers, side-scan sonar and magnetometer, both hull-mounted and towed. Typically, the towed cable lengths will be about four times the water depth while acquiring survey data.

Work will be conducted on a 24-hour basis and the vessel will display appropriate lights and signals. Mariners are advised to keep continuous watch on VHF Channel 16 when navigating the area.

As the survey vessel will be restricted in its ability to manoeuvre when surveying, due to the deployment of the towed survey equipment from the vessel for the duration of the survey activities, other vessels are kindly requested to keep a wide berth.

Details of relevant coordinates and contact information are included in Marine Notice No 27 of 2022, attached below.

Alpha Marine will undertake a geophysical survey campaign in relation to the Clogherhead Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Co Louth from next Thursday 25 May to Wednesday 27 July.

The survey will be conducted by the Baltic Explorer (callsign LYBW) utilising multibeam echo sounders, sub-bottom profilers, side-scan sonars, magnetometers and ultra-high-resolution survey equipment.

Geophysical equipment will be both hull-mounted and towed. Typically, the towed cable lengths will be about four times the water depth while acquiring survey data.

The work will be conducted on a 24-hour basis and the work vessel will display appropriate lights and signals. Mariners are advised to keep continuous watch on VHF Channel 16 when navigating the area.

All other vessels operating within this area are requested to keep their distance and pass at minimum speed to reduce vessel wash.

Mariners are also asked to note that the start date and the duration of the activity are dependent on weather and work progress.

Coordinates of the survey area and contact details can be found in Marine Notice No 26 of 2022, attached below.

Van Oord Ireland is to commence operations on the Arklow Long Sea Outfall project in the coming week.

The outfall will be approximately 1,000 metres in length and have a diameter of 630mm and will be laid in a pre-excavated trench.

Weather depending, the current schedule for installation works of the pipeline is from Tuesday 17 May until the end of July.

Initially, three HDPE pipelines each of 309m in length will be towed as a bundle from open sea to the North Quay at the Port of Arklow, where these pipe strings will be moored off alongside the quay and worked on until the pipe installation in mid-June.

During pipe installation, the harbour entrance will have limited availability to other traffic for 48 hours.

Dredging works are planned to commence on Saturday 28 May. Prior to that, survey works will be performed in the period from Wednesday 25 May to Monday 30 May.

The operations will be conducted by a number of vessels, including the backhoe dredger Razende Bol (callsign PFSD), shoal buster AMS Retriever (callsign MEHI8), tug Husky (callsign 2EQI7), landing craft Ros Aine (callsign EI-2G-5) and tug Valdemer (callsign OUCG2).

Early this coming week the Valdemar will arrive offshore where lead tug AMS Retriever and assisting tail tug Husky will join the tow towards Arklow Harbour, which will take the normal navigation route into the Avoca River mouth.

All work vessels will keep a VHF radio listening watch on Channel 16.

Contact details and coordinates for these operations are included in Marine Notice No 25 of 2022, attached below.

Continuing its Kinsale area decomissioning project, PSE Kinsale Energy Limited advises that its Kinsale Head platform removal campaign will commence later this month and is expected to run through to September.

Works will be conducted by the semi-submersible, self-propelled crane unit Thialf (callsign 3EAA4) assisted by a number of cargo barges towed by the MV Kolga (callsign PCTR) and MW Bylgia (callsign PBMQ). The Merel G (callsign HO6511) will be used for crew transfer between the vessels and shore.

Backloading of removed compoents onto the cargo barges is planned for the offshore location but may be performed inshore depending on environmental conditions.

All work vessels may be contacted on VHF Channel 16 throughout the operation. All other vessels, particularly those engaged in fishing, are requested to give the vessels a wide berth and to keep a sharp lookout in the relevant areas.

Details of relevant coordinates and contact information can be found in Marine Notice No 24 of 2022, attached below.

The North Irish Sea Array (NISA) offshore wind farm project is currently engaged in a benthic survey campaign off the coast of North Co Dublin, Meath and Louth.

Similar to the survey conducted last autumn, the campaign involves the deployment of benthic grab and drop-down video equipment from a survey vessel within the bounds of the proposed array area, and is expected to be completed by next Monday 9 May, weather permitting.

Survey works are being conducted by the survey vessel Husky (callsign 2EQI7). As this vessel is restricted in its ability to manoeuvre when surveying, due to the deployment of the grab sampler, other vessels are requested to keep a wide berth. A fisheries liaison officer is aboard the vessel for the duration of the survey campaign.

Contact details, a map and coordinates of the survey area can be found in Marine Notice No 23 of 2022, attached below.

The Air Corps advises that it will conduct air-to-ground and air-to-air firing exercises in the Gormanston D1 Air Range in Co Meath this week.

Mariners in the Irish Sea off Co Meath are given due warning that live firing will take place daily between 9am and 5pm from tomorrow, Tuesday 26 to Friday 29 April.

An Activation Notice (Danger Area D1 – Gormanston) was issued last week, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

The officer in charge of firing on each day will be fully briefed regarding communication between the firing point and the Air Traffic Control Centre at Dublin Airport.

In addition, the Naval Service will provide a patrol vessel to enforce the exclusion zone in the Irish Sea.

Irish offshore renewables survey company Ondine is undertaking geophysical survey works as part of a scientific data-gathering exercise for the Voyage Offshore Array in the Celtic Sea, south of Co Wateford.

The scope of this survey is the turbine array, which is located outside the 12-nautical-mile zone, and the current plan is to undertake surveys on only 50% of this area.

The works were scheduled to commence earlier this week will continue and will until 15 July, subject to weather.

The survey is being conducted from the research vessel DP1 Kommandor Iona (callsign GAAK) on a 24/7 basis. The vessel is towing geophysical equipment during operations and is restricted in its ability to manoeuvre.

All other vessels operating within the vicinity of the Kommandor Iona are requested to keep their distance and pass at minimum speed to reduce vessel wash. Radio transmissions will be conducted with other seafarers to notify them of the operations.

Further details on the survey area and contact information can be found in Marine Notice No 21 of 2022 attached below.

The Department of Transport has been advised that Kinsale Energy plans to undertake decommissioning activities on the subsea infrastructure in the Kinsale Head and Seven Heads gas fields.

These works are due to commence on or around Tuesday 10 May and are estimated to last 20 days, weather depending.

The operation will be conducted by the construction support vessel Skandi Constructor (callsign C6ZH8), which will be on VHF Channel 13.

Works will involve the use of subsea construction equipment on and around the subsea infrastructure, including remotely operated vehicles/equipment.

All vessels operating in its vicinity are requested to keep their distance and pass at minimum speed to reduce vessel wash.

Coordinates of the works areas, contact details and more can be found in Marine Notice No 20 of 2022, attached below.

Russian vessels will be denied entry into Irish ports after this Saturday 16 April on the foot of sanctions from the European Union amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

As the latest Marine Notice from the Department of Transport outlines, all Irish ports are directed to deny entry to any ship, yacht or recreational craft registered under the flag of Russia.

The ban also applies to any such vessel that changed the registration or flag of the vessel from the Russian Federation to another state on or after 24 February this year.

Exceptions may be made, pending approval by the relevant authorities, for the transport of fossil fuels; metals and chemicals; pharmaceutical, medical, agricultural and food products; and humanitarian purposes.

The ban is also waived in the case of a vessel in need of assistance seeking a place of refuge, of an emergency port call for reasons of maritime safety, or for saving life at sea.

Further details can be found in Marine Notice No 19 of 2022, attached below.