The deadline for submissions in the public consultation on a review of the Code of Practice for the Safe Operation of Recreational Craft has been extended to 5pm on Friday 9 December.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the Department of Transport reached out to stakeholders in the marine sector last month as it begins the process to review the Code of Practice, the latest edition of which was published in 2017.

The Code of Practice provides information on the legislation that applies to recreational craft, as well as safety information, advice and best-practice guidance for owners, operators and users of a range of recreational craft operating in Irish coastal and inland waters.

It’s proposed that the review will look at the content, structure and design of the Code, including at ways to improve the understanding of the content for end users, both in terms of presentation and layout.

For more details, see Marine Notice No 75 of 2022 (Amended) which is attached below.

An ultra-high-resolution geophysical survey will be carried out in the Oriel Wind Farm array area in the Irish Sea off Co Louth to provide bathymetric and subsurface information to facilitate the development of the offshore wind farm.

The survey work was anticipated to start Friday 18 November 2022 and to be completed by mid-December 2022, subject to weather and operational constraints.

Works will be confined to the Oriel Wind Farm array area, which is located between Dunany Point and the Cooley Peninsula.

The survey will be conducted by the Fastnet Pelican (callsign 2FNX7), which is a shallow draft survey vessel. The vessel will be restricted in its ability to manoeuvre due to the deployment of towed survey equipment up to 100 metres astern.

All other vessels operating within this area are requested to leave a wide berth.

The work vessel will display appropriate lights and signals and operations will be conducted during daylight hours. Mariners are advised to keep continuous watch on VHF Channel 16 when navigating the area.

Coordinates and a map of the survey area as well as contact details can be found in Marine Notice No 78 of 2022, attached below.

The Department of Transport has been advised that the Marine Engineering Division of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is undertaking dredging and quay construction works at Smooth Point in Killybegs Fishery Harbour Centre, Co Donegal.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the contract for the completion of works at Smooth Point was awarded in July to Sorensen Civil Engineering Ltd.

Works were set to begin last month and will continue until April 2023, subject to weather and operational constraints.

Plant on site includes a backhoe dredger, modular pontoon dredgers, split hopper barges, tugs and other smaller vessels.

For safety reasons mariners are requested to stay clear of the dredging zone for the duration of the works in the harbour and are requested to proceed with caution in the area of the new pier. Wave wash from vessels should be avoided.

A map of the dredging area as well as contact information can be found in Marine Notice No 77 of 2022, attached below.

Techworks Marine is deploying three surface buoys with single-point moorings for a metocean survey campaign at the site of the proposed Clogherhead Offshore Wind Farm.

It follows a geophysical survey campaign conducted by Alpha Marine this past summer, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

These deployments are expected to be completed over a two-day period, at the next available weather window from Sunday 6 November, subject to weather and operational constraints.

Once deployed, the met ocean devices will remain on site for a period of up to 12 months.

The survey campaign will be undertaken within the proposed Clogherhead Offshore Wind Farm site, located some 10km from the Co Louth coast. Detailed coordinates and a map of the survey area are included in Marine Notice No 76 of 2022, attached below.

Three yellow buoys will be deployed, each with a hull diameter of 1.2m and a nominal freeboard of 0.7m. The buoys will display a St Andrew’s Cross day mark, and are fitted with a radar reflector and navigation light with a three nautical mile range, flashing a sequence of five flashes every 20 seconds.

Deployment operations will be conducted by the twin-hulled multi-cat work vessel MPV Skua (callsign 2GDE3).

During works, the vessel will be restricted in its ability to manoeuvre so all other vessels are requested to leave a wide berth during the deployment operations. Radio transmissions will be conducted with other seafarers to notify them of the operations.

The North Irish Sea Array (NISA) has rescheduled a previously planned geotechnical site investigation campaign on the proposed offshore wind farm area off the coast of north Co Dublin, Meath and Louth.

This campaign will involve the deployment of seabed borehole drilling and cone penetration test (CPT) equipment for continuous sampling and is expected to be completed between today, Friday 4 November and Thursday 8 December, subject to weather and operational constraints.

It will be confined to the proposed NISA offshore wind farm area, which 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 on a 24-hour basis by the Fugro Synergy survey vessel (callsign C6XR3).

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

An onboard fisheries liaison officer will be available to discuss operations throughout the duration of the survey campaign.

The vessel will display appropriate lights and signals. Mariners are also advised to keep continuous watch on VHF Channel 16 when navigating the area.

Coordinates and a map of the survey area as well as contact details can be found in Marine Notice No 74 of 2022, attached below.

The annual Irish Groundfish Survey (IGFS) for 2022 will be carried out by the Marine Institute off the North West, West and South Coasts of Ireland from next Monday 31 October to Friday 16 December.

The IGFS is a demersal trawl survey consisting of approximately 170 fishing hauls of 30-minute duration each in ICES areas VIa, VIIb, VIIg and VIIj.

Fishing will take place within a two-nautical-mile radius of the positions indicated in the appendices to Marine Notice No 73 of 2022, which can be downloaded below.

The survey will be conducted by the RV Celtic Explorer (callsign EIGB) which will display appropriate lights and signals. The vessel will be towing a high headline GOV 36/47 demersal trawl during fishing operations.

The Marine Institute requests that commercial fishing and other marine operators keep a two-nautical-mile area around the tow mid-points clear of any gear or apparatus during the survey period outlined above.

Further details can be found in the Marine Notice attached below.

The Department of Transport says it is advised that the Air Corps will conduct air-to-ground air firing exercises in the Gormanston D1 Air Range in Co Meath next Thursday 27 and Friday 28 October.

Live firing will take place on the Thursday between noon and 9pm and on the Friday between 11am and 4pm IST.

Marine Notice No 72 of 2022 says an Activation Notice (Danger Area D1 – Gormanston) will be issued.

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. The Naval Service or Air Corps RHIB will enforce an exclusion zone.

Contact details are available in Marine Notice No 72 of 2022, attached below.

Trial operations of remotely piloted uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) are planned to take place in the Dundalk Bay area from this week until mid November.

Subject to weather and operational constraints, the operations will run for a period of four weeks from Thursday 20 October.

The XO-450-type USVs from Greenore-based Xocean will be engaged in survey activities for the proposed Oriel Wind Farm in the Irish Sea some 22km off the coast of Dundalk in Co Louth.

This is a non-invasive survey, Xocean says, and no contact with the seabed or any other infrastructure is planned during survey operations.

The USVs will send real-time images and situational awareness data over satellite to a team of operators keeping watch and controlling the vessel remotely 24/7.

Although the vessels are uncrewed, they are constantly monitored and controlled, and piloted remotely using 360-degree cameras and other navigational aids.

Each USV is equipped with AIS, navigation lights and a sound signal, an active radar reflector and a yellow-painted superstructure to make it conspicuous to other marine traffic.

All other vessels operating within the affected area are requested to avoid contact with any USV and be aware of the operational area during this period. A Radio Navigation Warning will be in place during operations.

Contact details, relevant coordinates and a map of the survey area are included in Marine Notice No 71 of 2022, attached below.

The Department of Transport advises that a new online ship radio licence and EPIRB registration system is being implemented as of Monday 17 October.

This system replaces the paper form and email application processes and is be available at the online portal for the Irish Maritime Radio Licence System (IMRAD).

A ship radio licence is required under national and international legislation to certify that a vessel may operate approved radio communication equipment on specific maritime radio frequency bands and is also necessary for the assignment and recording of unique vessel radio communication maritime identifiers such as callsigns and MMSI numbers.

The registration of EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) carried on board Irish vessels is also mandatory.

These licensing and registration processes are coordinated internationally to protect maritime safety-related communications worldwide and to facilitate and support distress, safety and search-and-rescue operations.

This new online system provides users with a convenient means to fulfil these licensing and registration obligations.

In addition to the regulatory requirements, the effectiveness of maritime radio equipment including EPIRBs for search-and-rescue communications depends upon correct identification, encoding, programming and registration of devices.

The Irish Coast Guard relies upon the information contained in this system for search-and-rescue operations to quickly identify vessels and to obtain emergency contact information. This information is also used to quickly resolve inadvertent distress alert activations so that search-and-rescue resources are deployed effectively and not to false alerts.

It is therefore essential that up-to-date and accurate vessel and contact details are recorded in this system. The information is also provided to the ITU international MARS database system for notification to other maritime administrations worldwide.

For full details see Marine Notice No 70 of 2022, attached below.

Update: the survey has been rescheduled for 4 November-8 December 2022 and Marine Notice No 69 of 2022 withdrawn.

Following this past week’s deployment of metocean instrumentation, the North Irish Sea Array (NISA) intends to undertake a geotechnical site investigation campaign on the proposed offshore wind farm area off the coast of north Co Dublin, Meath and Louth.

This campaign will involve the deployment of seabed borehole drilling and cone penetration test (CPT) equipment for continuous sampling and is expected to be completed between next Monday 17 October and Sunday 20 November, subject to weather and operational constraints.

It will be confined to the proposed NISA area, which 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 on a 24-hour basis by the Fugro Synergy survey vessel (callsign C6XR3).

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

An onboard fisheries liaison officer will be available to discuss operations throughout the duration of the survey campaign.

The vessel will display appropriate lights and signals. Mariners are also advised to keep continuous watch on VHF Channel 16 when navigating the area.

Coordinates and a map of the survey area as well as contact details can be found in Marine Notice No 69 of 2022, attached below.