Sea Services North America has been working quietly since 2020 providing turnkey scout and safety services for offshore wind energy developers through their co-op model that brings developers and local commercial fishermen together for the benefit of both.

Four years later, Sea Services has scouted more than 10,000 miles of seabed and identified more than 1,000 fixed and ghost-gear sites, saving developers untold hours and millions in downtime costs by avoiding entanglement nightmares. The value of our scouting expertise can’t be overstated, but one developer did put it in context.

“We value our relationship with the Commercial Fishing Industry. With Sea Services, we can sort of fire and forget, if you will — we fire off a need or a task or a mission. We fire that off to Sea Services, and then we can essentially forget about it. Do we have a fleet that we can rely on to provide scouting and safety services? 100% yes. And it’s literally about that simple. We don’t have to worry about investing staff time — we’ve outsourced that to a turnkey provider. That’s about as high a praise as I can offer!”

And all that work through this unique co-op business model that brings commercial fishing vessels and crews up to offshore wind safety standards earned Sea Services a Ventus Award for safety in April from the industry’s largest trade group, Oceantic Network.

This recognition results from Sea Services’ investment in local fishing fleets to ensure crew safety and reduce project risks. Every vessel in SSNA’s fleet undergoes an extensive 130-point safety inspection by certified marine safety experts, ensuring compliance with standards that surpass U.S. Coast Guard regulations. Additionally, crew members perform daily safety and emergency drills and are required to meet rigorous training and certification standards to work with SSNA.

This process has led to the establishment of the Sea Services Certification for crewmen working on offshore wind projects.

From 2020 to 2024, SSNA has delivered $21 million directly to boats in equipment upgrades and crew payments, with an average vessel income of $843,000 for the year. Over 150 commercial fishermen have now been Sea Services Certified, reinforcing both workforce capacity and community trust in offshore wind projects.

For developers, we represent a one-stop maritime solution managing everything from vessel deployment to environmental monitoring and data collection. Sea Services eliminates the need for developers to coordinate multiple commercial fishing vessels while streamlining logistics and reducing administrative burden and overall project risk.

Our onboard vessel software allows for real-time monitoring of safety/ guard zones and captures all targets (ARPA and AIS), vessel movements, fishing gear, protected species, and HSE events. Data is stored and can be utilized for incident reporting and analysis.

Active fishermen embedded on research vessels facilitate conversations rather than conflicts with others fishing in the area, ensuring safer, smoother transits for all.

Our customized version of the WATCHFUL platform delivers 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.

But enough from us. This is what one developer’s representative says about Sea Services North America:

And illustrating the win-win that Sea Services represents for fishermen and developers, this is what long-time commercial fisherman Matt Linnell of Massachusetts says about the vital working relationships that have developed:

“Sea Services has provided a great service for the wind industry and the fishermen who work for them. The fishermen have provided a lot of knowledge on the way gear is set in these areas – as most of my captains have 30-plus years fishing. Sea Services has been able to talk to the guys fishing because they know most of them personally. When you know who you are talking to, it’s a big help when you’re asked to scout an area. We have the knowledge to get there and a pretty good idea who is fishing there.”