Ice impedes shipping off Russia and Finland

摘要

The safety of several vessels was jeopardised by severe weather in January. Rescuers airlifted 11 people to safety after a Russian refrigerator ship listed and threatened to capsize off the east coast of Russia during high winds and stormy weather on 22 January, while on 29 January a ferry carrying 850 people had to be freed from thick ice after it became stuck during its journey from Finland to Estonia. The 1,557dwt riverine-class refrigerator ship Smolninsky was leaving a commercial fishing ground with 1,500 tons of fish when it ploughed into an ice-field in the Sea of Okhotsk - which separates Sakhalin Island from the Russian mainland - and started to freeze over in temperatures as low as -20℃. When the flat-bottomed ship developed a 30° list to its port side its captain sent out a distress call, while its 20 Russian crew tried vainly to straighten the listing vessel and hack it free from the ice.