They were transporting fish on a nuclear powered ship.
The long way. (vs land transport):
Seriously what are the Russians up to with this?
From The Barents Observer:
Second shipment of fish via Arctic sea route cancelled
Sailing fish from the Far East via the Northern Sea Route to St. Petersburg on board the nuclear-powered container vessel «Sevmorput» turned out to be less profitable than expected.
Two voyages were planned for this autumn. Sailing from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, via the port of Nakhodka and all along the north coast of Siberia and around Scandinavia with seafood to St. Petersburg.As noted in the outro from "Norway Would Like To Know If Russia Plans To Make More Salmon Hauling Trips With Their Nuclear Container Ship":
The first voyage took place in September with a second planned for late October, early November.
Today, however, the nuclear-powered container ship «Sevmorput» is at port in Murmansk, according to MarineTraffic. Here, the huge red-painted, only-existing civilian nuclear-powered cargo ship in the world, has been at quay since September 26th....MORE
....If only there was some sort of land based transportation mode that could make the trip, something that crossed Siberia, Trans-Siberian if you will, that was comprised of individual cars that could be hooked up in train. And get the damn salmon to Moscow in days not weeks.Previously: "The Nuclear Powered Container Ship Sevmorput Is Going to Haul Salmon Along the Northern Sea Route (and Norway and Denmark)"
Maybe put 'em on a boat in Petropavlovsk and sail them across the Sea of Okhotsk to Sovetskaya Gavan, whose harbormasters are (reputedly) eminently bribable and will speed your multi-modal perishables on their way west to wind up in some fat mafioso's belly. Ditto for Vladivostok but you'll need to wave a bit more cash to get anyone's attention.
This is an odd story. First off the Sevmorput is old. It went into service in 1988.And before I forget, there should have been a Hat Tip on the Russian 'Satan-2’ Ballistic Missile story, also the Barents Observer.
Secondly, although I haven't asked about the costs, you would have to assume a nuclear cargo ship would have to carry some high value cargo to pay the freight, so to speak.
Last March the ship was carrying construction materials and equipment from Archangel to Novatek's LNG 2 project off the Ob river and we were going to do a post on this oddball ship and its five day trip.
That at least made sense: high-value cargo short distance, entirely within Russian waters.
Here's the latest from Fish Information & Services:
Norebo Group to launch nuclear-powered fish shipping around Scandinavia....
