Skills Development Scotland has awarded The Underwater Centre in Fort William funding to help ensure that Scotland is ready to supply the qualified workforce that the subsea industry will need in the future.

Aboard the Schooner Utopia, ROV Technician Clayton Harbin is showing off his new toy for young kids "It’s kinda like a video game for them," Harbin said. "And then when they find out it can be a career for them, it’s really amazing for them."

A Phantom® T4H ROV, designed and built by Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc., has successfully completed an inspection of the intake riser at Cherry Lake Dam near Yosemite in California. The dam, built in 1956, has provided water and power to the San Francisco Bay Area, Modesto, and Turlock districts for over 60 years, and the structure has not been seen since its construction.

The European Commercial Marine Awards (ECMAs) were launched on the opening evening of Seawork 2017. The ECMAs incorporated the Innovations Showcase, which this year attracted 41 entries from across Europe and was sponsored by Lloyds Register, with new awards for Professionalism, Sustainability, and Lifetime Achievement.

The ADCI is soliciting comments for it upcoming revisions to the International Consensus Standards for Commercial Diving and Underwater Operations. Stakeholders are invited to provide comments for the upcoming edition 6.3. The comment period will commence on 27 June 2017 and conclude on 24 September 2017. The following areas will be available for comment: • General Provisions • Diving Personnel: Medical and Training Requirements • Diving Personnel: Responsibilities, Qualifications, and Certifications • Diving Modes: Definitions, Requirements, and Guidelines • Underwater Operations: Procedures, Checklists, and Guidelines • Life Support Equipment: Inspection, Maintenance, and Testing • Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) • Emergency Procedures, Assessments, and Reporting of Accidents • Vessels and Floating Platforms for Diving Operations • ADCI Compliance Audit Procedures • Reference Materials

The Bergen International Diving Seminar 2017 will be held November 15 and 16 at the Clarion Hotel Bergen Airport. The 2017 Topic is Smarter Solutions to Address the Industry's Future. NUI will, on behalf of The Association of Operators for Hyperbaric Lifeboat Reception Facilities repeat the success by arranging the 25th Bergen International Diving Seminar.

The July/August issue of Underwater Magazine is online now. This issue features an article on career paths in the commercial diving industry, an article about the first commercial ROV, the second in a series of articles about historic dive helmets, and a primer on cyber security in the oil and gas industry. All of this and much more in the latest issue of Underwater Magazine.

Subsea engineering analysis consultancy, AgileTek, has completed the first use of its revolutionary AELCloud system on a project for geo-intelligence and asset integrity provider, Fugro. The work required a substantial number of simulations of subsea power cable installation operations to be performed to verify procedures, component sizes and weather windows. Some of the results were required at critical milestones within the larger project, and AELCloud allowed AgileTek to scale server capacity on demand to meet these deadlines.

TDI-Brooks International, Inc. has been awarded the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) funded study entitled "Deepwater Atlantic Habitats II: Continued Atlantic Research and Exploration in Deepwater Ecosystems with Focus on Coral, Canyon and Seep Communities." This interagency five (5) year, multi-million dollar study shall focus on the exploration and investigation of deepwater biological communities located in U.S. federal waters of the northwest Atlantic Ocean, potentially including offshore Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia (Figure below). The program focus is on hard substrate habitats, with some work related to soft bottoms and within the water column also included. Results of the completed program will provide energy resource information needs for future offshore leasing of the Outer Continental Shelf in the mid and south Atlantic regions and information on the continental shelf ecosystems.

UAE-based Marsol International has signed a two-year contract with Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production (OOCEP) for the provision and management of marine and offshore activities related to tanker loading, via the single point mooring (SPM) offshore marine terminal including maintenance works, vessels, equipment, and manpower.

Moog Focal is pleased to announce the successful qualification and release of the Quad Serial Server (QSS) module. This product combines a 4-channel serial server with integrated 3-port Ethernet switch on a single 3U Eurocard to seamlessly integrate serial interface sensors with modern Ethernet-based control systems. It also enable transmission of Ethernet data over legacy serial telemetry links. The low power, space efficiency, and remote configurability of the QSS facilitates subsea integration and significantly reducing costs of subsea upgrades and new developments.

Global subsea excavation specialist James Fisher Subsea Excavation (JFSE) has announced the introduction of centrally-located jetting systems to its mass/controlled flow excavation (M/CFE) equipment spreads. The high velocity water jet, designed, developed and patented by JFSE, facilitates the excavation of soils previously considered too dense to excavate using traditional mass/controlled flow techniques.