On November 11, the crew of a U.S. Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine demonstrated their lack of professionalism by running into a halibut net and losing the ability to continue moving in Norway's Malangen fjord, near the town of Tromsø. Having sunk the net and caused $4,000 to $5,000 in damage to a 22-year-old Norwegian fisherman, the American boat, after freeing its propeller from the fishing gear, continued its patrol in the North Atlantic.
A rope and a windlass are all that remain of the fishing net that was lost in the encounter with the USS Virginia The crew aboard "Øygutt": Harald Engen (left), Peder Siglei Moe and Aksel Hind Andersen. Photo: Official U.S. Navy Website
It's no use getting fired up either, said fisherman Harald Engen to NRK on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old fisherman became the protagonist in a "net-against-submarine" incident out in the sea off Senja and Kvaløya in Troms on Monday.
It was the 7,800-ton nuclear-powered submarine USS "Virginia" that was on a short visit to Malangen fjord when the incident occurred.
Engen was on his way home to deliver a halibut catch when word came that a submarine had swept an entire halibut net into the sea outside the small fishing village.
A net that he and his crew, aboard the 10.8-meter-long trawler "Øygutt" from Sommarøya had just set.
We had just emptied the nets and set them out again, and were on our way to the fish farm on Sommarøya, when we were called by the coast guard on channel 16 on the VHF radio, explains Engen, adding:
A submarine had run into our halibut net, and had carried the entire net two nautical miles north into the sea.
There are large and fine halibut being caught on the fishing grounds within Malangen fjord this autumn.
At the fish farm on Sommarøya, the crew unloaded 29 kilos of small halibut, some monkfish and about 176 kilos of halibut weighing between 20 and 40 kilos.
The price is good this autumn and with 72 kroner per kilo for the largest halibut. This made the value of Monday's catch well over 20,000 kroner.
Despite a valuable catch, it is of little help to the crew on board the "Øygutt" when a 115-meter-long submarine sweeps away fishing gear, worth between 40,000 and 50,000 kroner, and tows it out to sea.
The fishing gear is on the bottom of the sea. It has sunk and we will probably never find it again, explains Harald Engen, dejected.
USS "Virginia" route shown on the map. On Monday morning, the nuclear-powered submarine USS "Virginia" entered Malangen, the strait between Senja and Kvaløya. NRK has spoken to fish buyer Egil Johansen in Botnhamn on Senja. He says that American submarines regularly receive supplies from other vessels in this sea area. Around midday on Monday, Norway's Coast Guard vessel, KV "Heimdal" was in the area with a light boat and assisted the submarine.
The location of the trawler at the moment of the incident. It was on the way back to the fish farm on Sommarøya on Monday afternoon that Harald Engen and the crew, aboard the trawler "Øygutt", received word that a submarine had entered a set of halibut nets just north of Hekkingen island
The Coast Guard confirms the incident.
It was a submarine that got a fragment of the fishing gear in the propeller. The Coast Guard helped them cut the fragment loose from the submarine, informed the Coast Guard's press officer, Kenneth Dahl, to NRK.
KV "Heimdal" was on site early and assisted the nuclear submarine using a small motorboat on Monday morning.
It just happens that vessels get twine and splinters in their propellers, he explained briefly to NRK.
This is the USS "New Mexico" photographed off Tromsø in 2021. On Monday, her sister ship, the USS "Virginia", a Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, entered a fishing net off Sommarøya in Troms. Photo: Helene Sofie Thorkildsen / Forsvaret
Is it common for nuclear submarines to have nets in their propellers?
It's hard to see net buoys when the waves are high and there's a little wind, he explained.
Harald Engen is the skipper aboard the small trawier "Øygutt". Here he shows on the chartplotter where the submarine ran into his net. Photo: private
Harald Engen has worked as a fisherman since he was a teenager, and in recent years has started his own trawler. Therefore, the costs of 40-50,000 kroner in lost fishing gear are quite a lot.
We thought about turning around and starting to look for the net when we got the message. But the Coast Guard explained that the net had been dragged over two nautical miles further north, and that the nets had been cut loose, said Engen.
At the same time, he hopes that there may be a replacement.
The nets were registered, and the Coast Guard has said they will contact us so that we may get them replaced, he explains.
I don't think it will be a good story at the pub on Sommarøya this weekend?
Yes, I have heard of other vessels going over net links, but no one out here has ever heard of a submarine ever doing it, emphasized Engen.
He has received messages and phone calls from local people and fishermen over the past 24 hours, who have heard about the incident.
The fishermen overheard the Coast Guard's call on the VHF radio and word has spread in the village, explained Engen.
At the same time, he emphasized that there is no bad mood in the village directed at the nuclear submarine that dragged the halibut nets of Harald Engen and the crew of "Øygutt".
There is no reason to get excited about this, concludes Engen.
But he and the crew of "Øygutt" are left with something after the incident: a blowtorch, a net pole and some cut rope.
A memory, and certainly documentation, of perhaps the largest smelt caught in halibut nets off the coast of Troms: a 7,800-ton and 115-meter-long, nuclear-powered American attack submarine of the Virginia class.
Source: NRK
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