Sea Services North America’s mission as a cooperative between commercial fishermen and offshore wind developers believes in the power of collaboration.

As Dominion nears construction for its 2.5 gigawatt coastal Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, or CVOW, Sea Services has partnered with Virginia’s own B&C and its subsidiary, Ocean Watt Safety to provide services to the CVOW developers. The companies have spent months completing all preparations of the fleet and crew for offshore wind construction work, certifying Virgina fishermen, enhancing safety measures and training them for offshore wind project work.

SSNA has responded to Dominion Energy’s Request for Proposals for Scout and Safety vessels.

“We respect Dominion’s commitments to local economic development, and to support the Commonwealth’s commercial fishermen,” SSNA Chief Executive Officer Gordon Videll said. “We are thrilled to compete on the merits for the opportunity to provide our industry-leading Scout and Safety Services to the Dominion project. The RFP process has been detailed and rigorous, and should we win, we look forward to offering more opportunities for struggling Virginia fishermen to offset their fishing income by working in offshore wind construction.”

“We are thrilled with (Virginia) Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s mutual support for offshore wind in Virginia, and his support for Virginia’s fishing industry,” B&C CEO Bill Mullis said. “We hope to show the market the example of how native Virginian fishermen, with the right training and partnerships, can be assisted through commercial offshore wind work.  Dominion knows we are here and ready for the green light.”

“Working with the Sea Services team, we completed the full preparation of our participating vessels by bringing them up to standards with fully licensed captains and trained crews.”

Videll added, “We’re excited to further expand to demonstrate the scalability of our co-op model and expand offshore opportunities to fishermen. We couldn’t have a better partner in Virginia than Bill Mullis, widely known to be not only a scalloper of the first order but also a VIP in the world of NASCAR.”

Mullis, who founded B&C Seafood Inc. in February 2001, recently formed a partnership with SSNA, to capitalize on SSNA’s best-in-class performance record, platform, training, and administration. It also allows SSNA to continue to expand its offerings into Virginia as the SSNA model is designed to scale geographically.

“I’m excited for both the partnership with SSNA and going through this process,” Mullis said. “There’s no way an individual fishing company like mine could handle the complex bidding, auditing, etc., working with Dominion in preparation for well over a year. I know they feel very strongly about the utilization of active commercial fishing vessels as a priority and to ensure the economic impact of this project can be felt right here in Virginia.”