Good news from the shrimp traw­ler “North­gui­der” that ran aground clo­se to the coast of Nord­aus­t­land in nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen on 28 Decem­ber, 2018: more than 300 tons of die­sel were suc­cessful­ly reco­ver­ed until Sun­day mor­ning in an ope­ra­ti­on that took seve­ral days. The work was car­ri­ed out by the Dutch spe­cia­li­sed com­pa­ny Ardent Glo­bal and the Nor­we­gi­an coast­guard, on the coast­guard ship KV Sval­bard, as the Nor­we­gi­an broad­cas­ting com­pa­ny NRK reports.

332 tons of mari­ne die­sel oil were secu­red on KV Sval­bard until Sun­day mor­ning 5 a.m. Such a huge amount of fuel in a sen­si­ti­ve high arc­tic envi­ron­ment, during a sea­son when the drift ice can approach quick­ly or the water can free­ze local­ly at any time, could have crea­ted a major envi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ter.

Reco­very work at the shrimp traw­ler North­gui­der. Pho­to: Kystverket/Küstenwache.

The ope­ra­ti­on went fas­ter than expec­ted. The cold, but sta­ble wea­ther con­di­ti­ons of the weekend were an important part in the effi­ci­ent pro­cess to secu­re the die­sel compp­le­te­ly, and so was the hard work of the Dutch spe­cia­lists and the crew of the coast guard along with other aut­ho­ri­ties invol­ved (Sys­sel­man­nen, Kyst­ver­ket).

More than 300 tons of die­sel were secu­red until Sun­day mor­ning from the shrimp traw­ler North­gui­der, which is groun­ded in Hin­lo­pen Strait. Pho­to: Kystverket/Küstenwache.

Smal­ler amounts of lubri­ca­ti­on oil and other che­mi­cals are still being secu­red, as well as other loo­se items that may harm or lit­ter the envi­ron­ment.

Sal­va­ging the ship its­elf is a total­ly dif­fe­rent ques­ti­on. This will be a major ope­ra­ti­on. How and when this will be done is curr­ent­ly an open ques­ti­on.

The owner of North­gui­der, Opi­lio AS, is respon­si­ble for covere­ring the cos­ts.