Unique financing for new Sea Ranger ship

Today the Sea Ranger Service is announcing the closing of financing to build a new ocean conservation ship by early 2024. The ship will be deployed to assist the Dutch and British governments with improved management of the North Sea, as well as being involved in seagrass restoration as a form of climate mitigation.

What makes the financing setup unique is that the conservation business model of the Sea Ranger Service has now enabled fund investments and maritime sector financing, which is provided by Triodos Sustainable Finance Foundation a foundation managed by Triodos Regenerative Money Centre (TRMC), Nesec Ship Finance and PDENH (sustainable impact fund from the Dutch province of North Holland), to make an impact towards achieving better ocean health.

The dual mission of the Sea Ranger Service is to train young people into a maritime career, and to protect and restore biodiversity in our oceans. Speaking of the Sea Ranger Service mission, José van Pul Senior Investment Manager at TRMC says;

‘’Triodos Regenerative Money Centre finances innovative businesses and projects that can catalyse necessary sustainable transitions. By financing this vessel, we help the Sea Ranger Service to contribute to sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystems. At the same time, it offers young people a stepping stone towards a sustainable maritime career.’’ 

Currently in a dry dock in near the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the ship is a 24 metre sailing work vessel, using wind as its primary method of propulsion. This makes it a very low emission vessel, and in turn a low-cost way of delivering on necessary offshore research and biodiversity restoration services.

The new ship is a big step for the Sea Ranger Service, which will now be able to expand its ocean conservation work and maritime training of young people, to other countries outside of the Netherlands.

For some of the investors the project has proven to be a first, with Triodos Regenerative Money Centre and PDENH never having invested in a shipbuilding project before. When speaking about the reasoning behind this decision Thomas Ticheloven, Investment Manager of PDENH says;

“The trigger for us is the absolute necessity for fossil free maritime activities. The Sea Ranger Service initiative entails the strong combination of a sustainable approach, making impact on a social scale, and also leading the way in a new market. This makes it very attractive to us.”

Pieter van der Burg, Managing Director of veteran ship funder Nesec Ship Financing explains that while they may be more familiar with the financing of cargo ships, they quickly decided to come onboard;

“Nesec have been ship financiers since 1946, and generally we finance cargo ships. We see a lot of developments going on in the maritime industry which align with what the Sea Ranger Service does, meaning emission control, carbon capture, those types of objectives. There is a scalability in their organisation and in the way they have set themselves up, so that’s why we thought we can support them and see how we can further develop this together.“ 

Giving further detail on the need for the new ship, Wietse van der Werf CEO and Founder of the Sea Ranger Service says;

“We are very pleased to announce this financing agreement. Through government contracts we have serviced over the last years, we have shown that there is a great need for the Sea Ranger Service to revive our oceans. It is a growing market to measure the effects of climate change on our seas and help restore biodiversity in it.” 

The new ship is expected to be in operation from early 2024, and will be used in the Netherlands’ and UK water. For more information about the Sea Ranger Service, please visit: www.searangers.org