Design for Operational Efficiency and HSE in Marine Operations between Floating Cage Collars and Service Vessels in the Aquaculture Industry

In the shadow of challenges with salmon lice, fish escapements and a desire of increased production growth, there have been less focus on the safety for the personnel on the fish farms and in the marine aquaculture operations. Studies shows that the aquaculture industry is the second most dangerous industry in Norway after the fishery industry. At the same time, the industry is facing increasing production costs. Considering this, it is important to assess systematically every operation with respect to both safety and efficiency. Larger vessels, heavier operations, together with more exposed sites, makes operations more demanding and will reinforce this need. Furthermore, due to the new development concessions, many new concepts and methods are under development and will enter the market shortly. This will lead to unfortunate consequences if not properly assessed. Therefore, in order to secure the predicted growth in a sustainable way, it is more important than ever to ensure health, safety and the environment (HSE) together with efficient operations in Norwegian Aquaculture. The objective of this master thesis was to perform a Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) and a Continual Improvement Assessment (CIA) in order to answer the research questions established in the problem definition. These questions were to investigate whether the service vessels and floating cage collars are fitted to each other to create optimal working conditions with respect to both operational efficiency and HSE. The study will thus, give awareness of issues regarding risk, safety and efficiency in marine operations in the aquaculture industry. Furthermore, measures on both vessels and floating collars that could improve both operational efficiency and HSE, have been investigated. The thesis is limited to look at three essential marine operation between service vessels and floating net collars. These operations are net cleaning, service and maintenance of floating collars and delousing with tarpaulin. These operations are regularly performed, and especially the last operation demands many people and vessels to participate in order to be carried out. From hazard identification, a total of 62 hazards were found within the following operational phases: work on deck/net cage and entering/disembarking vessel/net cage (8 hazards), lift operations (10 hazards), net cleaning operations (5 hazards), vessel berthing to net cage (18 hazards), delousing the fish (12 hazards) and cleaning of floatin