| 25 T T Hugh de Lacy It’s not all glamour underwater Marlborough Commercial Diving Services’ work ranges from sub-sea construction and demolition to salvage operations, aquaculture, mooring salvage and cleaning, vessel inspection, ROV capabilities, cathodic protection surveys and hull cleaning and inspection. Marlborough Commercial Diving Services REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT When the Discovery Channel ran its Shark Week series on television last year, it was Nathan Dolan from Marlborough Commercial Diving Services getting up close and friendly with the great whites. Safety-diver supervisor work, with or without the great white sharks, is just one of the range of services that Nathan and his business partner and co-director Ben Barker offer through their project-management dive company. The company is best known for some high-profile jobs, such as the salvage work required in Picton Harbour in 2021 when a KiwiRail locomotive took a swim, and in 2024 assisting Marine Safety NZ with its remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to inspect the hull of the KiwiRail ferry that ran aground in the Marlborough Sounds. Marlborough Commercial Diving Services’ teams comprise local contract divers chosen specifically for the work, which ranges from sub-sea construction and demolition to salvage operations, aquaculture, mooring salvage and cleaning, vessel inspection, ROV capabilities, cathodic protection surveys and hull cleaning and inspection. Add to that list, pipeline installation, benthic seafloor sampling and monitoring with scientific institutes, and seaweed harvesting for scientific research. While Ben and Nathan are majority shareholders of the company, it has a key associated company shareholder in Johnson’s Barge Services of Havelock. This encompasses the wider support network of aligned companies that include Nautilus Pacific, Kenny Barging, and O’Donnell Park Barging. “These relationships mean we have access to the support of 14 vessels and barges of various sizes and capabilities to suit any project requirements,” Nathan says. “There’s a symbiotic relationship between the companies that particularly suits Marlborough Commercial Diving Services because we’re able to bring our projects to our larger stakeholder companies, and work with them to provide the right vessel for the task. We can then set about organising and supervising all aspects of our sub-surface projects.” While there’s the occasional glamour job, like filming sharks for the Discovery Channel, and promotional videos for the YETI brand, by far the greater part of the company’s work is in underwater construction, maintenance, repairs and seabed management. Based out of Picton, the company had its foundations in a commercial diving company originally owned by founding director Jim Brodie, for whom Nathan and Ben worked part-time before buying the business in 2023. Nathan was literally born into the dive business, his father marketing a well-known and highly regarded line of dive gear called Scuba-Pro in the 1970s and 1980s, and Nathan was messing about in it from the time he could crawl. He worked in the construction industry before gaining his dive qualifications in 2012, then as a freelance diver around New Zealand, followed by 10 years with the NZ King Salmon Company as dive coordinator, repairing predator nets to protect the salmon from seals and sharks. Accredited and certified with a Site Wise Gold award for health and safety, Marlborough Commercial Diving Services is, as far as Nathan is aware, the only Maori/Pasifika-owned company at the top of the South Island. Your sounds solutions sorted. 03 573 8880 office@opbl.co.nz www.opbl.co.nz With our diverse fleet of vessels and highly skilled team, we aim to provide a safe, reliable & consistent service to our clients - no matter how obscure the task may be. PROUDLY SUPPORTING MARLBOROUGH COMMERCIAL DIVING SERVICES CONTACT US 03 574 2434 | info@jbs.nz www.johnsonsbargeservice.co.nz
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