EM&I Support Environmental Research
January 3rd, 2019
EM&I – the international asset integrity specialists – who normally deal with offshore assets such as FPSOs, MODUs, FLNGs & FSRUs, were asked to take on a very unusual project recently, to inspect a ‘super yacht’ which has been made available by an Australian billionaire to aid ocean research teams to gather data around Australia’s coast in a bid to pressure the Australian government into increasing protection of marine parks.
The five-level super yacht is home to seven smaller boats that can be deployed in a variety of environments for a number of scientific purposes, such as shallow reefs and deep ‘Bluewater’ environments and has powerful communications equipment for communications with scientists anywhere in the world, no matter how far from land the ship is.
The super yacht is ice-class, meaning it can, and will in future, be travelling to the Antarctic. Researchers aboard will be spending every hour of daylight sinking baited camera rigs deep into the water to track the species there, while specially programmed drones rove ahead and behind the ship recording life closer to the surface, such as dolphins, turtles, whales, rays and ‘basking’ sharks.
Commenting on this most unusual project Danny Constantinis (Executive Chairman) of the EM&I Group stated: “We were delighted to have been invited to tackle this project which has given our inspectors a rare opportunity to work on such a prestigious vessel, which has been generously loaned by the owner for a very worthy cause. We completed the special survey to the complete satisfaction of the ABS class society and hope that the research project is successful. Many of our clients in the oil industry are conscious of the need to protect the marine environment, so this project is particularly important”.
