Tasik Subsea DSV earns Covid-19 accreditation from ABS

Tasik Subsea’s dive support vessel Southern Star has become the first vessel to receive the IDM-A (Infectious Disease Mitigation – Arrangements) Class Notation from classification society ABS.

The vessel had to prove to ABS surveyors that is has developed detailed procedures to deal with crew changes to prevent infectious diseases entering the ship, contain any disease if there should be an outbreak, and have sensible plans to evacuate any serious cases for treatment.

Also included on the vessel is a safety citadel that allows cabins to be rapidly converted to isolation spaces.

John Giddens, CEO of Tasik Subsea, commented: “Like many others we realised an outbreak of COVID onboard our vessel would be a personal and commercial disaster for our crew, our clients and for our company. It would result in stopping the vessel’s work and forcing it to a quarantine anchorage for an extended period, with no movement of people on or off the vessel while the medical issues for our marine and project crew were dealt with.

“As a result, we’ve been carefully managing our operations and implementing measures to protect our crew and vessel from COVID-19 since early last year. We are pleased to now be able to benchmark our measures against an ABS Class standard and are proud to be the first in the world to achieve IDM-A Class notation.”

Southern Star is currently on charter to Shelf Subsea and managed by Thome.