The sal­va­ging ope­ra­ti­on of the shrimp traw­ler North­gui­der, that ran aground at Spar­ren­e­set in Hin­lo­pens­tre­tet in Sval­bard in the end of Decem­ber 2019, tur­ned out to be more dif­fi­cult than expec­ted, as repor­ted recent­ly. Now it has been deci­ded that fur­ther ope­ra­ti­ons are post­po­ned until 2020, accor­ding to a press release from Kyst­ver­ket, the Nor­we­gi­an coas­tal and mari­ti­me aut­ho­ri­ty.

Due to the new infor­ma­ti­on about the hull being more stron­gly dama­ged than thought befo­re, new plan­ning is nee­ded and pro­ba­b­ly new tech­no­lo­gy, while the polar night is about to start in the­se lati­tu­des.

Groun­ded shrimp traw­ler North­gui­der at Spar­ren­e­set in Hin­lo­pens­tre­tet, august 2019.

In other words: not­hing will hap­pen with the wreck of the North­gui­der, which is still sit­ting on rocks just off the shore of Nord­aus­t­land, befo­re the sum­mer of 2020 – or, rather, not­hing other than what the forces of natu­re, ice and wea­ther, will do with the wreck. If the­re is then any­thing left to be sal­va­ged in 2020 is some­thing that only time can tell.