Greenland News

SunStone Maritime Group announced it has secured multi-year charters for two of its expedition cruise ships.The deals are for SunStone's Infinity Class vessels Ocean Explorer and the Ocean Odyssey, both built by China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) and delivered in 2021 and 2022 respectively.Under its new charter agreement, Ocean Explorer will return to polar cruising in October 2024 for SunStone's long-term client Quark Expeditions. The vessel, which ran aground in a remote part of Greenland last year…

A new containership planned for operations in Europe is set to become the world's first to use pure ammonia as fuel.Yara Clean Ammonia and NorthSea Container Line are establishing a joint venture, NCL Oslofjord, to operate the ammonia-powered ship Yara Eyde on routes between Norway and Germany from 2026.The project has been awarded just over NOK 40 million (US$3.6 million) from Enova, a Norwegian government enterprise promoting clean energy technologies.Ammonia is one of several alternative fuels gaining traction in commercial shipping to help cut emissions.

Energy ecosystems are evolving as the value of offshore power-to-X production is being realized.Flexible and delivered in long lengths on reels in a fast-track operation, thermoplastic composite pipeline can transfer up to nine times the amount of energy as a cable and can be used to store hydrogen, increasing the uptime of offshore wind farm generated power.That’s according to Netherlands based supplier Strohm, member of the Hydrogen Offshore Production for Europe (HOPE) project and the Dutch floating green hydrogen and ammonia OFFSET project.

A luxury cruise ship that ran aground this week in a remote part of Greenland with 206 people on board was pulled free by a fishing trawler on Thursday.The Ocean Explorer cruise vessel had been stuck since Monday in mud and silt in the Alpefjord national park, some 1,400 km (870 miles) northeast of Greenland's capital Nuuk."We have just successfully become free now. ...

A luxury cruise ship carrying 206 people remained stuck in a remote Greenland location on Wednesday after running aground earlier this week, the vessel's operator and rescue services said.The Danish military's Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said Tuesday's tide had failed to lift the 104-metre (341-foot) Ocean Explorer enough to free it."The tide that came in during the day, local time, did not provide the desired help to sail on," the JAC said in a statement.The passengers and crew remained safe on board, Australian cruise operator Aurora Expeditions said."There is no immediate danger to themselves, the vessel or the surrounding environment," Sydney-based Aurora said in a statement.The ship ran aground on Monday while touring the Alpefjord national park, some 1,400 km (870 miles) northeast of

Denmark-based OSK Design has unveiled its latest design, an Arctic frigate designed for operations in the North Atlantic, High North and Greenland regions.One of the notable features of the vessel is its fully operational helicopter, a critical asset for Arctic operations, allowing for airborne scouting, transport, and search and rescue missions in the challenging Arctic environment.The Arctic frigate is classed for year-round operation in the Arctic, capable of withstanding the most challenging ice conditions while maintaining optimal performance.

A luxury cruise ship carrying 206 people has run aground in remote eastern Greenland with the nearest help by sea days away, the Danish military's Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said on Tuesday.The Ocean Explorer ran aground on Monday in Alpefjord in a national park some 1,400 km (870 miles) northeast of Greenland's capital Nuuk, the JAC said in a statement.There were no reports of injuries, JAC said."A cruise ship in trouble in the national park is obviously a worry.

The Norwegian government on Tuesday proposed opening its waters to deep-sea mining despite opposition from green campaigners and some countries, as it seeks to shift from a reliance on hydrocarbons to new sources of economic activity.Norway, whose vast oil and gas reserves made it one of the world's wealthiest countries, has taken a leading role in the global race to mine the ocean floor for metals that are in high demand as countries transition away from fossil fuels."We need minerals to succeed with the green transition…

The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by the 2030s, even if we do a good job of reducing emissions between now and then. That’s the worrying conclusion of a new study in Nature Communications.Predictions of an ice-free Arctic Ocean have a long and complicated history, and the 2030s is sooner than most scientists had thought possible (though it is later than some had wrongly forecast). What we know for sure is the disappearance of sea ice at the top of the world would not only be an emblematic sign of climate breakdown…

Norway-based H2Carrier announced it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Greenland-based Anori to develop the first commercial wind farm in Greenland with subsequent production and export of green ammonia.The wind farm is projected to comprise 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy which will supply power to H2Carrier’s floating production vessel for hydrogen and green ammonia. Green ammonia will be stored in tanks onboard the vessel, then exported to smaller shipping vessels and carried to the international market.H2Carrier's proprietary design for a vessel that produces…

A walrus was spotted in the northern French port of Dieppe in Normandy, miles away from its natural habitat around the arctic circle, local French authorities said on Saturday.The sea mammal, usually found in Greenland, Russia or Alaska, did not show any sign of ill health, the local prefecture said in a statement. Local authorities cordonned off the area on Friday evening to protect the tusked animal, which was resting onshore, according to a picture tweeted by the prefecture. It dived down on Saturday morning and disappeared.

A group of European development banks plan to double its funding for global efforts to stop plastic waste from polluting the world's oceans to 4 billion euros ($4.6 billion).The Clean Oceans Initiative, led by the French and German development banks and the European Investment Bank is the largest such grouping targeting plastic pollution of the sea.Around 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the oceans every year, most of it discarded on land or washed into rivers, the group said on Friday…

Following another year of stark climate impacts in the Arctic, scientists warned Tuesday of a new scourge hitting the region: marine trash.With the region warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, sea ice that has long blanketed the Arctic Ocean is disappearing, opening new routes to shipping. Scientists began noticing the trash bobbing in the icy water or piling up on Alaska Bering Strait-area beaches last year.“That’s a direct result of increased human maritime activities…

Norwegian naval architecture firm Skipsteknisk announced it has secured a design contract from fishing company Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corporation (QFC) operating out of Iqaluit on Baffin Island in Canada for itsnew state-of-the-art freezer trawler.The new multi-species factory freezer trawler Saputi II will have a carrying capacity of 800 tons of shrimps or 1,200 tons of turbot. The vessel is of ST-118 design and will have a length of 79 meters and a beam of 17 meters.The trawler will be built with heavy ice-class and designed for operation in severe climatic conditions in the Bay of Baffin…

When MS Otto Sverdrup departed Hamburg, Germany, on itsmaiden voyage on August 24, Hurtigruten marked off three milestones: Introduction of Hurtigruten Expeditions’ third battery-hybrid powered cruise ship; Introduction of the first year-round expedition cruises from Germany; and a return of expedition cruises after more than a year of pandemic pause.Since the very first expedition cruise in 1896, Hurtigruten Expeditions has helped to define the expedition cruise category, with today a growing fleet of smaller…

Marine minerals are coming under sharp focus offshore Norway. Analysts suggest it could be a $20 billion annual revenue industry by 2050, which is why many are taking an interest and developing the technology to make it happen. Marine mineral mining has been something of a slow burner in the wider marine world. It has some clear challenges, not least location and depth of these potential resources, but also concerns around its environmental impact.Yet it now appears to be coming into a distinctly sharp focus…

CMA CGM Patagonia, the first in a series of 15,000 TEU liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered containerships for French shipping company CMA CGM, has been launched at the CSSC Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai.Ordered in 2019 and due for delivery in mid-August, the vessel is among a fleet of new box ships being put into service by CMA CGM that run on cleaner burning LNG fuel as a means to reduce shipping emissions.After announcing three years ago that it would adopt LNG, CMA CGM has…

In 2018, Havyard Design & Solutions won a contract for the delivery of two ship designs to Royal Arctic Line A/S. Reefer vessel design was a new segment for Havyard and the first of the two ships, ‘Siuana Arctica’, has now been delivered from the Astilleros Zamakona yard in Spain.Royal Arctic Line A/S handles all sea freight to and from the 13 biggest ports in Greenland, which secures supplies across the country. ‘Siuana Arctica' is set to sail the Uummannaq area to the Upernavik district in north-west Greenland.In the course of December…

The Coast Guard Research and Development Center (RDC) teamed up with Coast Guard Cutter Campbell’s crew this summer to evaluate five technologies as part of the RDC’s annual Arctic Technology Evaluation. The Campbell crew conducted the evaluations during their two-month deployment supporting joint Arctic operations off Greenland’s western coast, returning to their Kittery, Maine, homeport on Sept. 29, 2020.“Testing various technologies by cutter crews for operation in cold and Arctic environments provides highlights on what works and what may need improvement…

A new patented and class-approved on-top system for intelligent engine management promises a 10% reduction in a ship’s fuel consumption with a payback period less than 18 months, says the solution's developer Frugal Technologies. To date, the system, Frugal Propulsion, has been installed and tested on four cargo ships at different shipping companies, resulting in average fuel consumption savings of 10-15% after a run-in period. For many feeder ships, ro/ro vessels, chemical tankers and ferries will correspond to 2-4 tonnes of fuel per day.In fact…

On a windy August afternoon in 2017, Akitsinnguaq Ina Olsen was relaxing in the old harbor of Nuuk, Greenland's capital, when a Chinese icebreaker sailed unannounced into the Arctic island's territorial waters."I saw it by chance," Olsen, 50, told Reuters. "My first thought was: 'They're already here!' They're pretty cheeky, those Chinese."She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the 167-meter long Chinese icebreaker Xue Long (Snow Dragon), before it turned around and disappeared.The…

At the edge of the ice blanketing part of the Arctic Ocean, the ice looked sickly. Where thick sheets of ice once sat atop the water, now a layer of soft, spongey slush slid and bobbed atop the waves.From the deck of a research ship under a bright, clear sky, “ice pilot” Paul Ruzycki mused over how quickly the region was changing since he began helping ships spot and navigate between icebergs in 1996.“Not so long ago, I heard that we had 100 years before the Arctic would be ice free in the summer,” he said. “Then I heard 75 years, 25 years, and just recently I heard 15 years.

The Trump administration appointed a coordinator for policy in the Arctic on Wednesday, as Washington prepares to compete with Russia and China on resource extraction in a region quickly melting due to climate change.The State Department said Jim DeHart, a 28-year diplomat who most recently served as a senior adviser in South Korea, is now U.S. coordinator for the Arctic region.Washington has not had a top policy maker for the Arctic since Robert Papp, a retired Coast Guard admiral, served as the first U.S. special representative from 2014 until early 2017.U.S.