A Norwegian fishing boat has caught its largest ever haul – a US navy nuclear-powered submarine weighing in at 7,800 tons.
The 32-foot fishing boat was on its way back to harbour in the northerly region of Troms on Monday when it discovered that a submarine had got tangled in its nets.
“We had just emptied the nets and put them out again and were on our way back to harbour when we received a radio call from the coast guard,” Harald Engen, the ship’s captain, told local broadcaster NRK.
The coast guard explained that the submarine had dragged the nets two nautical miles out to sea, where they were eventually cut off.
Mr Engen, 22, has estimated his losses at around 40,000 Norwegian Krone (£2,800), a number that is roughly double what he earned for his halibut haul that day.
“I have heard of other boats getting caught nets but no one out here has ever heard that a submarine has done that,” he said.
The US embassy in Oslo later confirmed that the USS Virginia, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, got tangled up in the nets after making a scheduled stop at a harbour near Tromsø.
A nuclear submarine is powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed.
A Norwegian fishing boat had an unexpected catch near Tromsø – Moment RF/Roberto Moiola
The fishing net got sucked into the submarine’s propellers and had to be cut out by an escort vessel provided by the Norwegian coast guard.
In 2021, Norway agreed to let US nuclear-powered submarines use a civilian port just outside Tromsø to swap out crew and take on new supplies.
At the time, residents raised concerns that the military vessel could disturb civilian infrastructure. Some also protested about nuclear-powered vessels using a civilian port.
The move came in light of the construction of a new fleet of Russian nuclear-powered submarines, the first of which came into service in 2021.
The submarines are part of Russia’s Northern Fleet, which is stationed in the Murmansk province close to the Norwegian border.
With tensions between Nato and Russia at their highest point in decades over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Norwegian Sea is seen as a critical arena in any future conflict.
The Norwegian Sea around Tromsø is viewed as crucial in any possible future conflict with Russia – Moment RF/Ingunn B. Haslekaas
Norway says that Russia’s navy has intensified its patrols in the Norwegian Sea, where critical natural gas pipelines lie on the seafloor.
In the summer, the US took the unusual step of revealing that one of their Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines, which carry Trident nuclear missiles, was on patrol off Norway.
The US normally never reveals the locations of their nuclear-armed submarines, however analysts said the move was a show of force aimed at Moscow.
