Southampton Marine Services (SMS) has won a contract to build an aquaculture work-boat for a tuna farm operator in Malta.

The company — a specialist in ship repair, marine engineering and major fabrication projects — beat off tough European competition to land the contract.

It builds work-boats (under the Bulldog brand) for various sectors. The 24m-long vessel is expected to be delivered to Malta’s Fish and Fish Ltd in mid-summer 2019. Its main purpose will be tuna harvesting, plus aquaculture/fish-farm logistical and maintenance support.

John Buck, SMS’s business development manager (www.sms-marine.co.uk), said: “This is a big win for us, given both the scale of the opportunity and the competition from Europe. We’ve listened to the client, customised our offering and won the build via a competitive process.

“This project is particularly exciting, given the size of the market in Malta and the environmental innovation that we’ve built into the design.”

Fish and Fish director David Azzopardi, said: “It’s been a great pleasure working through the specification with John and the team at SMS, and we look forward to the build process. This represents a major investment for us.”