North Eastern Guardian III
- Owner: Guest
- Uploaded: Dec 24 2008 05:04 PM
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- Category: Fishery Protection Vessels
North Eastern Guardian III seen in her Home Port of Whitby on 21st December 2008.
Courtesy of the BBC web site:
Friday, 23 November 2007, 09:23 GMT
New protection boat for North Sea
North Eastern Guardian III A new £1.5m fisheries protection vessel is set to begin patrolling the waters off the east coast of northern England.
The vessel will undertake fisheries enforcement work, including inspection of catches, fishing boats and fishing gear from Tyneside to Lincolnshire.
Other duties include monitoring of fish stocks and sensitive marine habitats.
The Whitby-based North Eastern Guardian III also has state-of-the-art equipment to monitor industrial pollution and the effects of global warming on the sea.
It is currently undergoing trials to iron out "teething problems", said David McCandless, chief fishery officer of the Bridlington-based North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee.
He said he expected the vessel would be fully operational within the next two weeks.
The 26m patrol vessel, built in Finland, also carries a rigid inflatable boat for inspecting ships at sea and a remotely operated underwater vehicle.
"The delivery of this new vessel will significantly strengthen local fisheries conservation and marine environmental monitoring capabilities," said Mr McCandless.
"It is much larger than the previous vessel so we can comfortably operate much further out into the North Sea.
"It's already been out in severe weather when we brought it back through the Baltic from Finland last week. That was a real test of its capabilities and it performed very well."
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Well 'technically' she is owned by the North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee rather than HM Government
I suppose the Finnish Yard was the cheapest alternative - I'll bet there was a tight tendering system in place.
The EU coughed up 25% of the cost!!! - so that was a fair chunk of the £1.5 million the vessel cost.
Regards
Steve E.
I'll bet he cannot control the boat from the heads though
Regards
Steve E.