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 floating collar (9 hazards). Based on these hazards, generic accident categories were established and the following accident categories were identified to represent the total risk picture: trip/slip, hit by object, squeeze/trapped and collision/contact.
Based on predefined risk acceptance criteria, the overall individual risk and overall individual third parties risk were found to be unacceptable, which agrees with the fact that the industry is the second most dangerous to work in. Thus, according to the ALARP principle, risk-reducing measures are mandatory to implement. Furthermore, the risk related to environment and property were found to be high. Thus, service vessels and floating cage collars are according to these results, not fitted to each other in order to create optimal working conditions with respect to HSE.
To evaluate efficiency in the operations, the third step of the continual improvement model, KOSTER III, was utilised. This showed that; poor and inadequate design, not properly fitted equipment, lacking or inadequate planning and procedures leading to among others delayed and aborted operations, are recurring causes to inefficient operations. Thus, service vessels and floating cage collars are in many areas not properly fitted to each other in order to create optimal working conditions with respect to operational efficiency. Measures for increased efficiency and safety should therefore be established.
For each of the assessments, a brainstorming session were held in order to establish risk control measures and improvement measures. These measures were combined into ten practical and well thought out control options for improving of both safety and operational efficiency. These ten control options consist of six main areas: Planning, prevent falling into sea and drowning, prevent collision and contact, improve vessel stability and crane operation, improvement for new vessels and operation specific improvement.
Re-evaluation of the risk picture shows that it is necessary to implement a combination of control options in order to reduce the overall risk level sufficiently.
Based on individual risk reduction potential, the following recommendations has been made:
- Control option 1: Measures related to better planning and decision support system
- Control option 4a: General measures related to improving vessel stability and crane operation
- Control option 2c: Measures for personnel training and safety related to prevention of falling into sea and drowning
Based on third parties individual risk reduction potential, the following recommendations has been made:
- Control option 3a: Measures on net cage related to prevention of collision and contact
- Control option 1: Measures related to better planning and decision support system
- Control option 2c: Measures for personnel training and safety related to prevention of falling into sea and drowning
Based on environmental and property risk reduction potential, the following recommendations has been made:
- Control option 1: Measures related to better planning and decision support system
- Control option 3a: Measures on net cage related to prevention of collision and contact
Furthermore, some recommendations have been made based on implicit cost-effectiveness consideration and on how difficult they are to implement:
- Control option 1: Measures related to better planning and decision support system
- Control option 2c: Measures for personnel training and safety related to prevention of falling into sea and drowning
- Control option 2a: Measures on net cage related to prevention of falling into sea and drowning
The risk level is found to be unacceptable, and the main recommendations are therefore based on the quantitatively risk reduction potential. Many of the established control options that are not further recommended above might therefore in an operational efficiency point of view, give a larger improvement in the efficiency. However, as the control options are based on both risk reduction and improvement measures, they will also improve operational efficiency. Overall, the study shows that by ensuring efficient operations often contribute to safe operations and vice versa.