EFL
A high-seas drama was playing out in the Arctic waters of the Barents on Monday, after a Russian trawler resisted a Norwegian Coast Guard arrest order and fled with two Norwegian inspectors on board. The captain of a Norwegian Coast Guard ship was considering firing on the trawler. The Russian trawler Elektron had been stopped and boarded by the Norwegian Coast Guard on Saturday morning, in the Barents Sea near the border of an area where fishing rights are disputed.
Two Norwegians from the Coast Guard vessel KV TromsÞ, an officer and a crew member, were still on board when the Elektron refused to follow the Norwegian Coast Guard's orders to proceed to TromsÞ. Instead, the Elektron began sailing away with the Norwegian inspectors on board after they had uncovered several illegalities, including illegal use of nets and catching undersized fish. The Norwegian Coast Guard had declared the Russian trawler formally under arrest, and the trawler initially accepted the arrest order, according to Steve Olsen, squadron chief for the Coast Guard's northern division /Kystvakt Nord. The two vessels then started sailing for TromsÞ, in northern Norway, but the trawler suddenly changed course on Sunday. The trawler's crew claims it had been told by Russian authorities not to follow the Norwegian orders. The trawler's crew later altered their claim, saying the Russian government had ordered them to sail towards Russian waters. |