The Underwater Centre in Fort William (Monday, October 21) hosted a visit by the Scottish Government's Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Fergus Ewing.

Mr Ewing, who is also MSP for Inverness and Nairn, was visiting the subsea training and trials facility to discuss development plans and see first-hand the Centre’s work-class ROVs and two new barges, in which it has invested to meet the demand for its commercial diving and ROV Pilot Technician training courses.

The new vessels, the renamed Loch Sunart and Loch Scavaig, have been purchased from Western Ferries (Clyde) Limited.

One of the barges will be fitted out with two of the Centre’s work-class ROVs (WROV) and supporting ROV launch and recovery systems (LARS) and used for work-class ROV training – providing realistic training for students to learn how to launch work-class ROVs from a moving vessel.

Tags: The Underwater Centre