Newsletter – VII 2025
Overview of projects and operations – July 2025
To our great satisfaction, we have completed the operational part of yet another project – this was achieved thanks to the exceptional commitment and experience of the entire team. It is worth noting that this time the weather was favourable for our activities, and our efficient and well-coordinated team on board finished the task well ahead of schedule.
Freshly returned from the shipyard, the Amber Cecilia vessel performed brilliantly in this project – we confirmed that it is fully ready for new challenges and upcoming assignments.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved – great job!
We are pleased to announce that we have successfully completed the long fifth service of F-PODs, carried out using the Baltic Surveyor vessel. We are sincerely grateful to every person involved in this project, and this has been quite a crowd. Thanks to your professionalism, commitment and determination, we have once again demonstrated that MEWO can operate effectively even in the face of difficult conditions and challenges beyond our control.
We are ending July with a bang – servicing F-PODs from the deck of Amber Cecilia. But that is not all! During this cruise, we are expanding the scope of our operations by adding two more devices to implement the project in accordance with a new methodology.
The first day of July was the last operational day of another service conducted as part of the ‘construction stage’. This is when we can pause for a moment, take a deep breath and rejoice that we have managed to complete another round of tasks. With an intense period behind us, we already have new challenges in the project ahead.
Despite ambitious plans, an ROV inspection has not taken place yet due to difficulties on the part of the vessel’s owner. However, the operations are very likely to be finalised at the turn of July and August – we are keeping our fingers crossed! We are eagerly awaiting their launch, as we have been fully prepared for quite some time now.
July was very intense – from the North Star vessel, we successfully sampled soft-bottom benthos, more than two weeks ahead of schedule! The whole team deserves a big round of applause! Moreover, the buoy service has started, with two vessels involved and a third one expected to join them during the next weather window to complete the entire scope of work. We also carried out the second AWAC service, and autumn observations of migratory birds began from the deck of Doktor Lubecki. We are constantly preparing for hydro-chemical (third campaign) and geochemical (first campaign) survey cruises, as well as hard bottom sampling using the Cougar ROV, at the same time getting ready to mobilise another vessel for migratory bird surveys and four vessels for chiropterofauna surveys (transect monitoring). In addition, F-POD and SM4M service operations are coming soon.
In July, lower levels of GPS signal interference (jamming) were recorded, which allowed the HELOT and Amber Agatha vessels to conduct measurements with exceptional efficiency. The mobilisation of another vessel for geophysical work – Amber Cecilia – is planned after the completion of current projects and will significantly accelerate the progress of the project.
Benthos sampling with a Van Veen grab sampler was smooth! In the first half of August, we are preparing for the second F-POD service, and in the second half – for another round of mammal observations from land. There is a lot in the pipeline!
OFFSHORE CORNER
We are continuously reporting on the progress of work on five projects taking place in parallel.
A project-specific Scientific Survey Sheet was drawn up for the entire year of marine mammal observation in the Słowiński National Park area. Monitoring takes place once every two months, with the next campaign planned for the first half of August.
Project documentation was prepared and zoobenthos samples for the projects were collected on time. The PC from the North Star vessel deserves special recognition for taking action at the right time and contributing to a new grab sampling record, with no fewer than 89 points per day.
– Further documents and methodologies for 5 environmental tasks are currently being verified (hydro-chemical surveys, hydro-meteorological surveys, marine mammals, chiropterofauna, and avifauna surveys).
– More days of migratory bird observations have been completed.
– Despite numerous limitations and poor conditions, the Offshore Engineering Centre carried out buoy service work and identified a risk posed by the lack of sensors on the buoys.
Information on wind speed and significant wave height (Hs) from the ERA5[ŁK1] reanalysis provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) was used to estimate operating days.
Appropriate time series for wind speed and significant wave height are retrieved from the database previously analysed by the Environmental Survey Department, and operating days are defined as the proportion of the number of days meeting the relevant operating conditions (e.g. wind speed ≤ 10 m/s and significant wave height e.g. 0.6 m), presented in 3-hour intervals.
Heading verification instructions have been updated, with the acceptable difference changed from 0.05 to 0.1 degrees, and the USBL calibration procedure has been reviewed, with the subsection on z-check deleted.
Work is underway to improve the operation of the automatic survey log, prepare training materials for Qinsy operation, and configure the measurement system.
We are developing a system to mitigate interference.
Hydro Team
We process and verify data on an ongoing basis. We are preparing for the Baltic Pipe inspection, completing the project documentation and receiving training in EIVA eLearning modules. We are also awaiting the launch of the ROV inspection.
MAG Team
The Magnetometer Team completed the project with enormous success, both in terms of data processing and efficiency achieved.
In recent days, the Team has been involved in the implementation of another task. The data collection stage has already been completed, and work is now underway on post-processing and result interpretation.
The Team is fully prepared to handle new challenges.
Seismic Survey Team
Although the holiday season is in full swing, the Seismo Team is not wasting time, as the middle of summer also means the peak of the survey season! We have already received (nearly) all SBP data, immediately getting down to work to provide production data for interpretation and analysis on an ongoing basis. At the same time, we are testing our automatic algorithm for seabed picking and static correction selection, which saves a lot of time!
During the project, which we keep monitoring, analysing and verifying on a daily basis in terms of Consortium Member’s data quality and accuracy, we have also carried out an internal analysis for the purpose of drilling risk assessment.
And besides, we focus on continuous development, learning something new every day (sometimes from data, sometimes from mistakes 😉). We exchange experiences within the Team, testing new approaches, and sharing tricks and shortcuts to make our lives easier.
