OCEAN PROTECTOR

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Latest news

DOF sells Skandi Protector to Oz

Norway’s DOF Subsea has sold construction support vessel Skandi Protector to the Australian government, the second vessel the company has sold to Australian authorities. DOF said that delivery of the 2007-built vessel is scheduled for the first quarter of 2016. The ship served under contract with Australian authorities from 2010 through to the end of 2015, and has since operated as a subsea project vessel in the Asia Pacific region. http://splash247.com/dof-sells-skandi-protector-to-oz/

Expedition to Sydney II wreck commenced

An expedition aboard the "Skandi Protector" set off from Dampier to digitally capture the HMAS "Sydney II", lying 2500 metres beneath the ocean surface off WA, on Apr 27, 2015. The "Sydney II" was sunk on November 19, 1941, by the HSK "Kormoran", a German raider disguised as a Dutch merchant ship. None of the "Sydney II"’s 645 crew survived. The final resting place of the World War II ships, discovered 200 km west of Shark Bay in 2008, will be surveyed for the Two Lost Ships project. A collaboration between the WA Museum, Curtin University and exploration company DOF Subsea, it will capture high-resolution video and images of the wrecks. The imagery will form the basis of “virtual visitor experiences” at the WA Museum in Geraldton and the new Perth Museum, which opens in 2020. The aim is to create a full 3D reconstruction of the "Sydney II"’s hull, allowing it to be seen in its entirety for the first time. When it was discovered, the "Sydney II" was found to be still in a state recognisable as immediately after the simultaneous sinking. Two DOF Subsea ROVs fitted with lights and cameras will launch from the "Skandi Protector" over the next fortnight. The $2.4 million project has the support of the Royal Australian Navy and the Naval Association of Australia.

Asylum seekers held in windowless cabins

The 153 asylum seekers aboard an Australian Customs ship somewhere in the Indian Ocean are being locked up in windowless cabins, their lawyers claim. Their case, to be processed in Australia, returns to the High Court for a directions hearing in Melbourne on Friday. They claim because their boat was intercepted 27 kilometres from Christmas Island they were within Australian waters. The decision not to take them to Australia did not fall within the bounds of ‘legal reasonableness and it was otherwise disproportionate and therefore invalid’, their statement of claims says. It goes on to say that mothers and children had been separated from their fathers and husbands on the Customs ship, and there was no freedom of movement. Their phones and belongings have been confiscated apart from the clothes they were wearing. Almost all the Sri Lankan asylum seekers are unable to communicate in English and none of them have been asked why they left Sri Lanka. More to read at http://www.echo.net.au/2014/07/asylum-seekers-held-windowless-cabins/