Frequently Asked Questions

• Sea Services North America (SSNA) is the only maritime cooperative in the U.S. built by and for commercial fishermen working in offshore wind. Since 2020, we have become the trusted go-to partner for developers seeking scout and guard vessel services that meet federal, state, and community expectations. We are finalists for two 2025 Oceantic Vestas Awards: Supply Chain Innovation and HSE Program of the Year, further recognition of our leadership in the industry.

• We’ve delivered more than 10,000 nautical miles of scouting and safety zone coverage with zero gear strikes. Our performance has been validated by developers, regulators, and fishing communities in every major U.S. offshore wind market. We’re also the 2025 winner of the 2025 Oceantic Vestas Award for Health, Safety, & Environment Program of the Year, in recognition of our safe, high-performance maritime operations.

• While headquartered at the U.S. Coast Guard Research Center in New London, CT, our operations span the entire Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Our active fleet operates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia with more vessels onboarding in Maryland and California. This nationally distributed, cooperative model enables developers to access trained, mission-ready vessels without reinventing the wheel in each port. It’s this innovative supply chain structure that likely contributed to our selection as a winner of the 2025 Oceantic Vestas Award for Health, Safety, & Environment Program of the Year.

We are a professionally managed cooperative with Tier 1 vendor systems and a single-vendor contracting model. Our central team handles orientation, training, insurance, communications, scheduling, and regulatory compliance, so developers get the flexibility of hiring local fishermen without the overhead of managing individual boats.

SSNA has upgraded over 20 vessels to QHSE compliance and trained over 150 commercial fishermen through our Sea Services Certified program. This industry-first credentialing platform ensures our crews are trained not just in compliance, but in excellence across three distinct domains:

• STCW-compliant safety procedures (fire prevention, survival, first aid, and social responsibility)
• Operational training in radar navigation, AIS tracking, incident reporting, and gear claims management
• Environmental and engagement preparation, including marine mammal observation, stakeholder communication, and public testimony readiness

The result? A unified maritime operation that feels like a fleet with none of the chaos, and all of the trust.

• Not at all. Our day rates are competitive with non-SSNA workboats, and over 80% of every contract goes directly to vessel partners and local crews. You get compliant, field-tested operations with a single point of contact, while directly contributing to local economic development.

• Our standards aren’t for everyone. We only invite in fishermen committed to high performance, environmental compliance, and stakeholder engagement. That means not every vessel qualifies, but for developers, that’s the value we filter for quality, so you don’t have to.

• Absolutely not. Our services span the entire offshore wind project lifecycle from early-stage stakeholder engagement and pre-survey deconfliction to environmental monitoring, guard vessel deployment, and post-installation support. In fact, our earliest and most strategic value is often delivered before construction begins.
• By providing developers with fisheries advisement, real-time data, and community engagement rooted in trust, we help accelerate permitting, avoid stakeholder missteps, and set the stage for smoother construction and operations.
• And we do it more effectively, because we are fishermen, talking to other fishermen, in markets we’ve known for decades. Developers save headcount at this stage. They get sharper insights, faster access to the right fishermen in the right ports, and real-time advisement from people who know the waters, the gear, and the community. The result? Lower costs, better service, stronger reporting, and superior outcomes.
• Engaging us early also builds goodwill with critical state partners, regulators, and fishing communities, even if you’re not yet actively pursuing permits. By showing up before you have a formal ask, you’re investing in credibility and demonstrating respect. That early trust often pays dividends later in the permitting process, during construction, and throughout long-term operations.

• We support COP development, community engagement, environmental monitoring, species observation, gear claims management, data reporting, public testimony, and more, far beyond on-water operations.

• Our services support BOEM’s fisheries engagement and mitigation guidance. Our documentation, vessel operations, and stakeholder strategies reduce permitting risk and accelerate approvals.

• We deliver BOEM-aligned reporting packages, plotter files, stakeholder communication logs, marine mammal sightings, traffic pattern overlays, and gear mapping charts, all formatted to meet state and federal requirements.

• We use a customized version of the WATCHFUL platform to log gear location, vessel traffic, mammal sightings, safety events, and more that automatically generates regulator-ready reports.

• We consolidate compliance, insurance, training, scheduling, and back-office reporting under one contract. You get local knowledge with national-grade performance.
• As the Head of Commercial Fisheries Engagement at Equinor put it: “Previous to being exposed to Sea Services, we tried to engage with commercial fishing vessels directly. But that quickly became a nightmare.”

• Over 80% of our day rate goes directly to local fishermen and crews. Every contract drives investment into port communities, while creating pathways into a modern, resilient blue economy workforce.
• To date, SSNA delivered $21 million directly to boats, with an average vessel income of $843,000 for the year, because we had the work. Over 150 commercial fishermen have now been Sea Services Certified, reinforcing both workforce capacity and community trust in offshore wind projects.

• “We fire off a task and Sea Services handles it. We don’t need to manage logistics, they’ve built a fleet we trust.” — Marine Affairs Lead, Ørsted.