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This what a ‘secure’ ship in north Svalbard looks like: Coast Guard gains ‘new knowledge’ about Arctic operations protecting stranded trawler until its removal this summer

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A shrimp trawler that put its 14 crew members in fear of their lives when it partially sank in the northernmost part of Svalbard in late December is offering gruelling, but invaluable and unprecedented knowledge to the emergency officials from several agencies involved in rescuing the crew and the subsequent months of salvage operations in the harsh winter environment, according to a report issued following the latest operation this week.

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The Northguider trawler lies at a heavy angle more than two months after taking on water in late December in the northernmost part of Svalbard. Photo courtesy of the Norwegian Coast Guard.

Efforts to secure the Northguider in a strait at Hinlopenstredet, in protected nature reserve area between Spitsbergen and  Nordaustlandet, until it can removed this summer were successfully completed and “given us new knowledge about operations in such remote, dark and cold areas,” Rune Bergstrøm, operations manager for the Emergency Planning Department at the Coastal Administration, said in a prepared statement detailing the operation.

“No similar operations have been carried out in such demanding waters before that we know of,” he said. “The path that we’re walking on and the cold climate means we are constantly facing new challenges. During the last cruise the crew experienced an effective temperature of down to minus 43 degrees (Celsuis),” he said.

Fourteen crew members aboard the trawler were stranded after it was disabled and grounded on an icy shore with a list of about 15 degrees due to water leaking into the engine room. An investigation into the incident was completed in early February by The Governor of Svalbard has been sent to the Norwegian Maritime Directorate for follow-up, but details of the cause have not yet been publicly disclosed.

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A worker observes heavy icing on deck the Northguider as the Norwegian Coast Guard’s Svalbard vessel serves as a base for operations during efforts this week to secure the disabled ship. Photo courtesy of the Norwegian Coast Guard.

Rescuers using both of The Governor of Svalbard’s helicopters removed the crew members from the ship a few hours after their distress call in the total darkness of polar winter, with wind and snow complicating efforts. Similar problems delayed and complicated the removal of fuel and other hazardous materials a couple of weeks later.

The most recent operation by officials from the Norwegian Coast Guard and others focused on preventing further damage to the trawler and environment until it can be safely removed. Workers removed additional waste and potentially polluting equipment from the ship, but a more extensive operation was rejected due to the conditions, Bergstrøm said.

“We originally considered starting the removal of the wreckage during this period, but after a thorough assessment of the safety involving emergency personnel and the challenging climatic conditions at this time of the year it was decided that the wreckage should be removed in August,” he said. “The unstable weather we experienced during this operation shows that the assessment was correct. A salvage operation during this period could have been very challenging and risky, and the probability is great that the operation would had been interrupted along the way.”

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Poor weather impairs visibility and salvage efforts for the Northguider. Officials said the rescue and recovery are offering unprecedented experience on emergency operations in harsh conditions. Photo courtesy of the Norwegian Coast Guard.

Crew members installed three different systems with positioning equipment on the ship to be able to keep track of any movements. The sensors can also be used in the event of a “worst-case scenario” where the vessel moves/sinks from its current location and needs to be found. Measures have also been taken making it easier to recover the vessel in such a scenario.

The company that owns the ship and its insurer are working on the salvage plan in cooperation with the Norwegian Coastal Administration, and are responsible for the salvage operation when it happens in August.

The incident is adding fuel to a debate about Svalbard’s emergency preparedness, which has been called into question due to incidents in recent years including two major avalanches in Longyearbyen and a helicopter crash near Barentsburg that killed eight people. Svalbard’s remoteness means additional help from the mainland can take a day or more to arrive, a problem magnified when conditions make operations using resources already here risky or impossible.

 

 

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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