Sea Services’ mission is to bring increased safety to active fishing vessels and crews and to provide fishermen opportunities to use their on-water skills to earn additional income in offshore wind construction.  After more than three years of successful operation, Sea Services has developed three new service areas where it can add value to both its expanding roster of independent fishermen and its offshore wind customers. The first of these is Gear Claims Administration to offshore wind developers, with Ørsted as the first client.  

“If you’re a fishermen and you find your gear has been damaged, or it’s lost, it’s tough for guys to figure out how that may have happened.  If you’re an offshore wind company whose contracted vessel may have inadvertently interacted with deployed fishing gear, it’s tough to identify the fishermen who owns the gear, and even tougher to evaluate the claim, because your business is offshore wind, not fishing” said Gary Yerman, Sea Services co-founder and fleet manager. 

“SSNA saw an opportunity to exercise leadership in solving that vexing problem by offering the services of its own fisherman—members of the SSNA co-op—to serve as  an objective third party to manage claims from the fishing community when gear is lost or damaged,” SSNA COO Craig Devlin said. “By working with SSNA, Ørsted has placed trust in SSNA to act as liaison to the fishing community to continue to demonstrate that Orsted fully supports the fishing community and genuinely walks the walk when it comes to the peaceful coexistence between fishing and offshore wind.” 

Ørsted’s Head of Marine Affairs, Ed Leblanc, said: “In the unusual event that fishing gear is damaged by our equipment, we want to ensure that all fishermen’s gear claims are processed thoroughly and quickly.  The fishermen at Sea Services North America have demonstrated that they can achieve this  in a way that is more mutually beneficial to the fishing community and to Ørsted.  Sea Services will identify the fisherman and the gear, investigate the claim, recommend a resolution, and get the affected fishermen made whole.” 

A recent example tells the story:  In early June, the owner of Rhode Island-based commercial fishing vessel called Ørsted and reported the loss of a lobster trawl apparently caused by an Ørsted survey buoy.  SSNA’s subsequent findings revealed that an Ørsted oceanographic buoy that monitors sea temperatures and wave heights drifted and entangled the lobster trawl, causing it to be dragged off its set position and become lost. 

Orsted and SSNA Crew and Vessel Safety Manager Rodney Avila quickly arranged a meeting with the fishing vessel owner, resulting in the prompt claims process and immediate replacement from Orsted’s “gear bank” of 15 lobster traps valued at several thousand dollars.  “The idea of having a Gear Bank is to get the fisherman back fishing as soon as possible so they do not lose revenue,” Avila said.