Last night, Breman Innovation took home the Maritime Innovation Award at the Maritime Awards Gala, which took place at Ahoy in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The company won the award for its Eye Catcher, a lifting hook that allows loads to be picked up and released without human intervention.
While remote-controlled release systems already exist on the market, Breman‘s Eye Catcher is unique in that it can also autonomously and accurately pick up loads — even in challenging offshore conditions, such as strong winds or vessel motion.
Eye Catcher has received type approval from DNV. The first model has a 5-tonne capacity. By removing the need for personnel to be present in hazardous areas during load attachment or release, Eye Catcher significantly improves the safety of lifting operations. Its precision also makes offshore lifting more efficient, allowing for shorter vessel deployment times.
Since Eye Catcher is offered through a rental model, the environmental footprint of offshore lifting operations can be reduced. Its housing is made from certified seventy per cent recycled plastic.
In March 2025, the first series of eight certified tools was delivered to a major client under a rental contract. During the summer of 2025, demonstrations and tests were carried out under operational conditions with several other clients. These included offshore wind installation lifts and buoy-handling operations for fish farms in Norway, conducted from a maintenance vessel.
Also read: Seaqualize wins Maritime Innovation Award 2024
Other nominees
In addition to Breman, two other companies were nominated for the Maritime Innovation Award. Conoship International was nominated for its standardised, modular coaster design with diesel-electric propulsion that is future-ready, the CIP Series.
the other nominee was Marine Service Noord, which has installed the world’s first ammonia fuel supply system on an offshore support vessel (OSV). It was designed and built according to the risk-based design process and received class notation “ammonia-fuelled vessel” from DNV.
The Maritime Innovation Award is presented to the most appealing maritime innovation of the past year. It may be a product, service or business process innovation. The company must be based in the Netherlands, but may belong to a foreign holding company. It concerns a Dutch innovation that was developed at least 50 per cent in the Netherlands. The innovation is market-ready and has been sold at least once to a relevant market party (in the case of process innovation, the process must have been applied at least once).
For more information on these two nominees, read our October Maritime Awards special, available to subscribers here. Not yet a subscriber? Please visit our subscriptions page.
Also read: And the nominees for the Maritime Awards 2025 are…
Maritime Awards Gala
The Maritime Awards Gala took place on Monday evening, 3 November, at Ahoy Rotterdam. During the Maritime Awards Gala, more than 900 maritime professionals and stakeholders meet to celebrate the innovative capacity of the Dutch maritime sector together with politicians, the press and the nominees.
Every year, five awards are presented at the Gala; the Ship of the Year Award, the Maritime Innovation Award, the Maritime Talent Award, the Maritime Achievement Award and the Maritime Security Award.
Picture (top): Breman Innovation was selected Maritime Innovation Award winner and received the award at the Maritime Awards Gala (photo by the Maritime Awards Gala).
