National Oceanography Centre, Southampton European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK Tel: National Marine Facilities Sea Systems – An Overview Integrated provision of hardware and services to UK marine science Sea Systems operates under the following principles: ･ We operate specialised science platforms; with an embarked science capability. ･ We deliver a service which is shared by the marine and technical components and which is underpinned by an integrated strategic resource plan. To deliver our mission, we provide three key services: ･ The multi-disciplinary Royal Research Ships Discovery and James Cook ･ The National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP), comprising about £20M worth of equipment ranging from day grabs to complex state-of-the art underwater vehicles. ･ A team of approximately fifty marine technicians, providing specialist support to research cruises on a wide range of international and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) vessels as required, as well as Sea Systems’ own research ships. Sea Systems supports around thirty research cruises each year, with about twenty on our own vessels, and the remainder being onboard BAS or international barter ships. The main activities of the organisation are managed under four branches: Programme Management, Scientific Engineering, Research Ships and Support Services. Overall planning and service coordination is through the Programme Manager who acts as the primary contact for all proposed cruises that are yet to be published in the programme and is also responsible for identifying any new equipment which may be required to support future cruises. Once a cruise is published in the programme, cruise planning is handed over to Cruise Managers. A Cruise Manager is assigned to each cruise and will act as the first point of contact for all operational enquiries as well as ensuring that all logistical arrangements for the ship, equipment and staff are fully harmonized. Scientific Engineering provides foundation engineering services and provision of technical staff to support scientific equipment onboard. The group is organised in four sections ensuring a full technical service is provided Sensors and Moorings – Extensive experience working with a broad range of equipment, including vertical profiling systems, towed and undulating vehicles, moored instruments and mooring technologies Deep Platforms – Comprising Sea Systems specialist deep-water vehicles, the AUV Autosub3, the ROV Isis, an deep towed platforms TOBI, BRIDGET and SHRIMP Portable Systems – Responsible for facilities such as coring, trawling and seismic systems as well as general laboratory equipment such as fume hoods and gas generators. specialised container laboratories for clean chemistry and radio nuclide work Ship Systems – manages all engineering activities connected with equipment permanently fitted to the Sea Systems managed vessels including computer networks and a sophisticated acoustic suite The Research Ships team are responsible for the safe and effective operation of the Royal Research Ships Discovery and James Cook including operational and logistical arrangements for people joining vessels, diplomatic clearances, accommodation, liaising with ships agents and ensuring compliance with the International Ship Management code. The group is also responsible for ships engineering looking after propulsion and power generation, ship fitted winches and handling systems as well as managing refits and recertifications. The Sea Systems group is also responsible for maintaining the National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP) on behalf of NERC. The NMEP consists of a wide range of equipment which is primarily used to support the NERC Marine Facilities Programme. The operation is underpinned by Support Services, providing bespoke data systems for marine planning and equipment tracking as well as logistics services who ensure the supply and transportation of equipment worldwide.