A very specialized ship consisting of a hold in which graded rock is stocked. The rock material is placed at an exact location on pipelines or the sea bottom through a fallpipe. At the lower end of the fallpipe a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) is fixed. This ROV is operated from the deck and controls the rock placement in three dimensions.
Offshore rock placement is applied mostly to stabilise and protect pipelines, flowlines and power cables.