James Fisher Defence, together with sister company Fendercare, successfully recovered a 14 metre, 175 tonne Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM) buoy. 

James Fisher Defence, now part of JFD, recovered a CALM buoy, 4 anchors and over 5km of chain from the seabed off Toulon, France. The buoy was originally installed to moor the Longbow barge during missile firing trials in the Mediterranean. On completion of these trials all equipment had to be removed from the site.

On completion of the recovery (25 January 2011), the CALM buoy was towed into Toulon where it was recycled while all the remaining items were offloaded at Great Yarmouth.

Following an initial mobilisation in Aberdeen from 21st to 23rd December, the ship sailed for Toulon where the recovery operation was managed. All recovery work was undertaken between 6th and 16th January and the ship returned to Great Yarmouth to offload on 25th January.

Due to the size of the anchors and chain, the safety of the ship and its crew were of paramount importance at all times and all work was controlled through carefully developed and agreed procedures.

Services provided:

• Using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) the James Fisher team surveyed all equipment on the seabed
• The team cut the anchors and recovered over 5km of chain from the seabed under contract to the salvage and marine integrated project team of the UK MoD
• Recovered two 60 tonne gravity anchors and two purpose-built plough anchors
• On completion of the recovery work, a seabed survey was undertaken and additional debris cleared

Benefits delivered:

• Subsea recovery of subsea assets from environmentally sensitive area

Download the Calm buoy recovery case study.