Projects

Our team has significant civilian and military operational knowledge and practical experience, having completed many important maritime projects (see examples below) for regulators, ports, maritime logistics companies and other operators. We have advanced technical capabilities, push boundaries and continue to develop innovative, dynamic solutions for our clients.

Milford Sound Safety Management System

Role: Risk identification and assessment
Clients: Environment Southland

Navigatus was contracted to develop a safety management system (SMS) for navigational safety. This project involved identification and assessment of hazards,  and integration with an existing code of practice. A system of management was developed to ensure the identified risk controls were implemented and maintained as part of everyday operations. This demonstrates Navigatus’ knowledge and understanding of the marine environment and the hazards that exist in both a port environment and mid-sized vessel operations, existing methods of control and relevant marine safety legislation.

The project, undertaken for the regional harbourmaster, involved development of a SMS  for a nationally iconic area. Aside from the remote location and extreme weather typical for this exposed location, complexity is created by multi-operator activity carried out in an area not legally designated as a port.

The SMS forms a systematic method to identify and control risk, to assure that these risk controls are effective, and provide a channel for stakeholder engagement in safety management. The system facilitates goal setting, planning, and measuring performance. At the highest level the key SMS elements are:

  •       Leadership
  •       Competence
  •       Supervision
  •       Control

Operating in Milford Sound exposes the operator, employees, vessels, visitors and stakeholders to a number of different hazards. During this project, hazards were identified from user group workshops, previous Fiordland risk assessments, existing operator documentation, the current Code of Practice for Milford Sound and an analysis of incidents.

The project concluded with an agreement between operators in the area to a code of practice.

Port Development Support

Role: Expert witness
Clients: Ports of Auckland

Navigatus are recognised as expert in the field of coastal and navigational safety. On several occasions, Navigatus has been engaged in a peer review and expert witness role in support of two separate port expansion projects for Ports of Auckland Limited.

This illustrates Navigatus’ position as a trusted advisor to a large commercial port company and  our knowledge of port operations, ship handling and maritime legislation. It also demonstrates Navigatus previous work building an understanding of the context, assessing existing documentation, identifying risks and consulting with other experts in confidence.

The work undertaken in support of port expansion projects involved office-based and on-water research to assess the effect of change as well as on-going navigational risk. The port operates in a complex maritime environment with a busy mix of inherently incompatible commercial, military, power and sail recreational, and fast ferry traffic.

The work involved reviewing the original assessments carried out by the Chief Pilot and required both theoretical and practical understanding of the maritime environment as well as the operation of the port. The interaction between vessels, wind, tidal effects and the shallow water were considered.

The benefits of the development projects were considered by comparing two perspectives:

  1. the risk under existing operations and berth arrangements,
  2. the risk following the completion of the proposed berthing plan.

The level of public interest required the work to consider the effects on all other port and harbour users and to be able to withstand legal challenge.

MOSRA15 (Maritime Oil Spill Risk Assessment)

Role: Model development and delivery
Clients: Maritime New Zealand, Oil Pollution Advisory Committee

Navigatus have undertaken two marine oil spill risk assessments (MOSRA) for Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) and the Oil Pollution Advisory Committee (OPAC). The first was completed by Navigatus in 2010. Subsequently Navigatus was engaged to develop a considerably more advanced risk assessment in 2015 to meet Maritime New Zealand’s obligation to re-assess sector risk every five years. MOSRA reports risk ratings (based on an assessment of consequence, oil spill probability and expected oil exposure) for 20km lengths of coastline along the entirety of  New Zealand.

Sector profiles were also considered in MOSRA15 (and developed separately by Navigatus in 2012). This involved calculation of the risk for New Zealand as a whole as well as for each vessel type. From here, the relative contribution of each sector to the total risk was able to be determined. This provided a defendable determinant for MNZ to determine the contribution of each sector to the Oil Pollution Levy.

Both MOSRA projects made the best use of MNZ and both international and national data sources whilst recognising the gaps and limitations in thedata. MOSRA15 was developed and updated to reflect New Zealand’s changed and changing trading patterns and coastal activity, with changes and future scenarios able to be explored at a sector level.

New Zealand is a signatory to a number of conventions regarding oil spill liability and preparedness, response and co-operation, with MOSRA helping to inform the readiness and response capabilities and what needs to be done to deliver to the regulatory requirements. As stated below in an excerpt taken from the MNZ website.

The national framework for marine oil spill prevention, preparedness and response activities includes the Maritime Transport Act 1994, the Resource Management Act 1991, the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992, the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, and the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012. We use the MOSRA to help us to decide what readiness and response capabilities are appropriate and what we need to do to deliver the National Marine Oil Spill response Strategy. – (Maritime New Zealand, 2015)

This project, together with similar projects covering the states of West Australia, Victoria and New South Wales and areas in the Middle East, demonstrates Navigatus’ experience in the development of coastal risk assessments and exploring both existing and future trends and patterns in coastal activity.

These projects enable agencies to focus readiness and response capabilities and determine marine oil spill prevention, preparedness and response resourcing and activities. See Services for more information on Navigatus’ ‘Osprey‘ oil spill risk model.

http://mosra15.navigatusconsulting.com/map (Sign in as guest)

Safety Management of Open-Ocean Aquaculture Facilities

Role: Development of Safety Management System and advice on design of farm structures and support vessels
Clients: New Zealand King Salmon

This project was commissioned in support of the first truly open-ocean fish farm development in the Southern Hemisphere. It involved assessment of the level of navigational and safety risk associated with a proposed salmon farm site in the, at times, extreme conditions of the Cook Strait.  Navigatus considered international best-practice and standards, as well as the additional demands of the site including the heightened tsunami threat associated with the Pacific Ring of Fire.  Given the national maritime rules in place were not written with such farms in mind, use of Rule 40G (Novel Vessels) enabled a Safety Management System to be proposed together with international maritime classification.

This risk assessment considers risk from two perspectives; risk from the presence of the farms in navigational waters and the potential for risk to vessels resulting from failure of the structural arrangements of the farms.  Similar consideration was given to support barges and the effect of the exposed and remote site on safety and workability.

The risk assessment involved the following steps:

  • Understanding the context – identification of key stakeholders
  • Identification of risks – through consultation with stakeholders and experts’ professional experience, investigations of cage designs and site visits
  • Consultation with key expert stakeholders, potential designers suppliers and enquires with classification societies.
  • Analysis and assessment of risk – this report forms the analysis and assessment of risks (expressed in relative terms) based on information received from steps above.

This project shows Navigatus’ position as a trusted advisor to to the marine safety sector, and demonstrates our ability to work within the limitations of the existing rule set, knowledge of marine and aquaculture legislation and expertise in safety management systems.

 

Other Example Projects

Risk analysis / assessment:

  • Recovery of the MV KEA TRADER (Ardent Maritime BV) – risk analysis of salvage options for salvage of the MV KEA TRADER and development of MV KEA TRADER crew evacuation processes
  • Western Australian Marine Oil Pollution Risk Assessment (Government of Western Australia Department of Transport) – state wide marine oil spill risk assessment
  • Maritime Sector Environmental Scan (Maritime New Zealand) – analysis of current and future trends affecting oil spill risk in New Zealand waters
  • Victorian Marine Pollution Risk Assessment and Coastline Risk Profile (Victoria State Government Department of Transport) – state wide marine oil spill risk assessment
  • Fiordland Cruise Ship Risk Assessment (Environment Southland) – risk assessment for Fiordland cruise ship operations based upon navigational complexity, physical and environmental hazards, traffic density, nature of operations / passages and types / sizes of vessels
  • Bow tie risk analysis of navigation of large vessels (Port Otago Limited)
  • Marine risk assessment of navigation of Suezmax tankers along proposed dredged port entry channel (Refining NZ)
  • Safety risk analysis of main engine turbocharger failure (Royal New Zealand Navy)
  • Safety analysis of regulatory interventions (Australian government agency).

Maritime Operational Safety

  • Auckland Ferry Basin Redevelopment (Auckland Transport) – operational risk analysis for the relocation of Pier 3 and 4
  • Navigational Risk Assessment – Capital Dredging of Rangitoto Channel, FN berth and approaches (Ports of Auckland) – reviewed navigational aspects of submissions, prepared navigational safety evidence and delivered evidence at the Council hearing
  • Maritime Navigational Safety – Fishing Fleet Simulator and Sea Trial Development and Support (Panuku Developments) – operational risk analysis for the relocation of an Auckland fishing fleet
  • Sealink Ferry Terminal – Maritime Navigation Support (Panuku Developments) – operational risk advice for the design and construction of a RoRo ferry terminal
  • Open-water Aquaculture Developments (New Zealand King Salmon) – Navigational risk assessment and development of a navigational risk assessment framework
  • Fiordland Safety Management System (Environment Southland) – development of maritime safety management framework
  • Safety Advice and Support – RENA Recovery Operations (Svitzer Salvage Ltd) – development of SMS for MS RENA recovery related operations
  • Risk analysis of navigation channel development for Suezmax tankers (Refining NZ)
  • Fiordland Cruise Ship Safety Management System Review (Environment Southland) – development of cruise ship operations SMS for Milford Sound
  • Fiordland Safety Management System (Environment Southland) – development of SMS for Fiordland and Stewart Island
  • Western Australian Marine Oil Pollution Risk Assessment (Government of Western Australia Department of Transport) – state wide risk profiling and maritime hazards assessment
  • Otago Harbourmaster Service (Otago Regional Council) – maritime safety support as harbourmasters
  • America’s Cup 36 (AC36) Support – Maritime Navigational Safety (Panuku Developments) – navigational risk assessment and maritime expert to planning process for AC36
  • Risk profiling and study of Harbour Master and wreck removal liability and insurance requirements (Region Councils CEO forum)
  • Organisational risk assessment maritime and aviation (Far North Holdings Ltd)
  • Marine Oil Spill Risk Assessment (MOSRA10, MOSRA15; Maritime New Zealand) – national maritime oil spill risk profiling
  • New South Wales Marine Pollution Risk Assessment (Transport for New South Wales) – state maritime oil spill risk profiling
  • National navigational risk profiling (Maritime NZ).

Project related assignments:

  • Bluff Harbour Risk assessment / SMS (SouthPort / Environment Southland) – completion of a risk assessment for Bluff Harbour followed by the development of a combined Harbour SMS
  • America’s Cup 36 (AC36) Support – Maritime Navigational Safety (Panuku Developments) – AC36-related navigational design requirements and support to resource management application
  • Sealink Ferry Terminal – Maritime Navigation Support (Panuku Developments) – navigational design support for the construction of a RoRo ferry terminal
  • Auckland Ferry Basin Redevelopment (Auckland Transport) – provided specialist navigational safety advice to inform the design and resource consent processes
  • Recovery of the MV KEA TRADER (Ardent Maritime BV) – Operations Manager for salvage of MV KEA TRADER
  • Navigational Risk Assessment – Capital Dredging of Rangitoto Channel, FN berth and approaches (Ports of Auckland) – reviewed navigational aspects of submissions, prepared navigational safety evidence and delivered evidence at the Council hearing
  • South Taranaki Bight Iron Sand Mining Marine Consent (Trans-Tasman Resources Limited) – maritime expert witness for EPA process
  • Various aquaculture projects (New Zealand King Salmon) – maritime expert witness for EPA process
  • Safety Advice and Support – RENA Recovery Operations (Svitzer Salvage Ltd) – safety officer for MV RENA slavage and recovery and development of SMS for MS RENA recovery related operations
  • Maritime expert witness for planning process – Channel development for Suezmax tankers (Refining NZ)
  • Design of main engine turbocharger failure capture devices (Royal New Zealand Navy)

Business process and systems risk:

  • Support to Royal Australian Navy N4 Library Re-Write (Bureau Veritas)
  • Development of Port and Harbour Safety Code package (Otago Regional Council/Port Otago)
  • Fiordland Safety Management System (Environment Southland) – development of SMS for Fiordland and Stewart Island
  • Review of Port, Harbour and other water in the Otago region – Navigational Safety (Otago Regional Council)
  • Fiordland Cruise Ship Safety Management System Review (Environment Southland) – development of cruise ship operations SMS for Milford Sound
  • Development of tourist launch operations Safety Management System (Environment Southland)