Successful refloat of salmon feed barge in Scotland

Marine Masters successfulyl refloated a salmon feed barge in Scotland.

The 1000 mt weighing feed barge sank during extreme weather in November 2021. While waiting to be recovered, the salmon feed started to decompose, resulting in high concentrations of toxic H2S gasses escaping from the casualty.

Marine Masters was contracted to purge the feed storage spaces and subsequently refloat the salmon feed barge without causing any further damage to the structure.

While purging the feed storage spaces with nitrogen, the salvage team engineered a robust refloating plan involving chartering the sheerlegs Matador 3. Upon the arrival of the Matador 3 in Scotland, the salvage team completed all preparations.

The concrete feed barge was refloated quickly using an in-house developed lifting concept comprising steel slings integrated in steel spheres. These slings were installed through the mooring hawser pipes at each corner of the casualty.

Expert marine chemists were employed to continuously monitor the atmosphere inside the storage spaces and in the direct vicinity of the casualty to safeguard salvors against the toxic gasses.

The entire operation was conducted in close cooperation with the Owners.