SFF SERVICES LIMITED
Established in 1986 by the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF), SFF Services (SFFSL) provides vessel and personnel services to offshore marine industries. Primary focus is the Offshore Oil and Gas industry located within the Scottish sector of UK territorial waters. We also have a successful track record of undertaking work in other sectors.
SFFSL provides fishing vessels and experienced crews to provide protection for vulnerable subsea infrastructure such as pipelines under construction, wellheads and power, telecommunication and umbilical cables, benefiting the offshore energy sector, and the marine environment. Fisheries liaison work is also undertaken by personnel aboard clients’ construction and seismic survey vessels.
This also helped secure the future of Scottish fishing, keeping the fleet viable when fundamental restructuring of fisheries management dramatically reduced fishing opportunities while fish stocks steadily rebuilt. Over 500 different fishing vessels have undertaken work (>80,000 days at sea) through SFFSL since 2001.
A major proportion of profits generated from trading is used to fund SFF activity in the promotion and protection of the Scottish fishing industry. The ethos is to spread available work as widely as possible across member vessels without compromising safety and quality standards. A strong commitment to company values from member vessel owners and crews has been vital in the Company achieving client buy in to the aforementioned ethos which has brought mutual benefits.
The Company has diversified over time to provide a range of services; environmental monitoring, seismic support, debris recovery trawling, emergency response, pipeline bundle tow, marine mammal observation and passive acoustic monitoring. The Company also manages various Scottish Government and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund projects which collect data to improve the science base and stock assessments, informing fisheries management vital to the future health of the industry.
Underpinning the services it provides, SFF Services has progressively worked to improve underlying QHSE standard, and has successfully achieved approval to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 & ISO 45001:2018 certified by LRQA. The Company is also supplier registered on SEQual.
Vessels provided by the Company are compliant with the relevant legislation for their size and class and hold Load Line Exemption certification issued by the governing body (UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency). Vessels are inspected in accordance with our own internal auditing process per our MSF Supported ‘Guard Vessel Inspection and Specification’ form which is overseen by our in house Marine Assurance Officer.
Our Vessel Skippers and crew work to the guidelines and standards set in the Company’s ‘Guard Vessel Operational Procedures Manual’, a copy of which can be provided on request.
The vessel inspection process and the ever demanding QHSE requirements contribute, not only to the delivery of an ever improving service, but serve to complement the existing fishing safety standards, positively affecting the Scottish fishing industry. As referred to earlier, the high proportion of fishing boats utilised as guard vessels has allowed the invaluable knowledge of offshore activities gained, to be spread through the fleet; and there is a greater awareness of the North Sea infrastructure when they return to fishing.
A small onshore team of experienced mariners and enthusiastic and dedicated personnel successfully combine to deliver a seamless service; meeting, and exceeding wherever possible, ever evolving client expectations. By providing 24 hour emergency cover the team are able to respond quickly to short-notice mobilisations/changes to client requirements and also keep the client immediately informed of developments.
The company holds membership of a number of trade bodies including Decom North Sea.