Sea Services North America, the nation’s leading provider of independent fishing vessels to work on the development and construction of offshore wind farms, has announced its new vessel partnership with B & C Seafood.

The partnership allows B&C to take advantage of SSNA’s best-in-class performance record, platform, training and administration, while also allowing SSNA to continue to expand its offerings into the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Sea Services Co-op model is designed to scale geographically.

Gary Yerman, Sea Services co-founder and Fleet Manager said, “Now into our fourth year of operation, we’ve focused on quality and growing slowly with the OSW business, which has been start and stop to say the least.  We use an extensive selection process in identifying and selecting our vessel partners. As a fisherman, I’ve known of B & C’s quality operation for years and it didn’t surprise me at all that their operation would move through our process with flying colors.  B&C is just a first-rate business and team.”

William “Bill” Mullis founded B&C Seafood Inc. in February 2001. Its original purpose was to purchase and sell catches from offshore fishing vessels owned by Mullis and his long- time friend and fishing partner, Charles Olsovsky, as well as other vessels.

B&C currently has an in-house fleet of nine fishing vessels, the main fishery of which is Atlantic Sea Scallops.  B&C Seafood is operated today by Mullis’ brother, Ed Mullis, and has a unique position in the marketplace.  B&C provides its customers with direct access to the finest quality sea scallops as well as other seafood available in the market. The company has also remained in high demand based on a long-term reputation for some of the highest quality “off the boat” products in the business.

Bill Mullis said, “I have been thinking about engagement with offshore wind for a good while now.  Sea Services has a model where they track the industry, contract with developers, finance prompt payments, assist in preparing vessels and training crew. They have proprietary OSW reporting technology, coordinate and take care of the reporting to the customers, so that fishermen can be on the water performing the tasks that we do so well.  Additionally, they have a significant track record that has built a lot of operational trust within the OSW community.  It’s a match made in heaven.”

Gordon Videll, Sea Services CEO said, “Today, Sea Services has worked with four OSW developers and two tier 1 suppliers on nine separate campaigns.  We have grown our family of vessel partners to nearly 20 active fishing vessels across five (now six) states. We’ve upgraded these vessels and trained more than 80 fishermen who have earned nearly $10 million.”

Long-time fisherman, Rodney Avila, SSNA’s new Head of Safety and Training, said “Bill Mullis is a top-notch fisherman and business operator. He shares our passion for increased safety at sea, takes care of his crews and is engaged in his local and statewide community.”

Bill Mullis said, “The Sea Services team is top notch. They are in it for the long haul with a first-rate track record. They’re committed to providing active fishermen opportunities for increased safety training, additional income while they are not fishing and have developed this incredible Co-Op that allows fishermen like me to essentially plug in and get to work. I have been thinking about this for a long time and feel grateful for the benefits that will come from this partnership.”

Together they will seek to provide fully MSIW inspected vessels and crews trained to the STCW level with fully certified captains for OSW projects in Virgina, Maryland and beyond.