Norwegian fisherman ‘catches’ submarine in its net

A vessel from Tromso snared 200kg of halibut and 7,800 tons of US submarine

A nuclear-powered US submarine reportedly got tangled in a fishing net off the northern coast of Norway, giving one local fisherman a pub tale for the ages, but ruining his halibut haul.

The Oygutt, a fishing vessel based in Tromso, had brought in about 200 kg of halibut on Monday morning and set out its nets anew hoping for a similar catch. Instead, captain Harald Engen “hauled in” a 7,800-ton missile submarine.

“We were on our way back to the fish farm on Sommaroya when we were called up by the Coast Guard,” Engen told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “A submarine had gone into our halibut net, and dragged it two nautical miles northward into the sea.”

All that was left of the expensive apparatus was a buoy. “The net is at the bottom of the sea,” added Engen, 22. “It is gone, and we will probably never find it again.”

Coast Guard spokesman Kenneth Dahl confirmed to NRK that the boat had an encounter with a submarine. 

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The culprit appears to have been USS Virginia, a fast-attack submarine powered by nuclear reactors and armed with cruise missiles, Norwegian media said. It was visiting Tromso as part of an initiative to “deter and defend the increasingly complex security environment of the High North,” the US Navy said in a statement.

The 115-meter-long submarine’s propellers got tangled in Engen’s net on Monday, but it took a couple days for the Norwegian media and the US Navy to acknowledge what happened. 

A spokesman for the US 6th Fleet, Lieutenant Pierson Hawkins, told Business Insider that the incident is being investigated, and would not confirm the name of the vessel involved.

“I have heard of other vessels going over net links, but no one out here has heard of a submarine doing that,” Engen told NRK, admitting that it would make for quite a tale at the village pub. 

While he bore the Americans no ill will, Engen said he hoped to get the expensive piece of equipment replaced. He might have to deal with some paperwork first. According to Hawkins, “when the US is responsible for damage to civilian equipment, there is a claims process to reimburse the expense.”

Norway is one of the founding members of NATO, and borders Russia in the Arctic. The US has repeatedly sent naval vessels to the area, ostensibly in response to Russian fleet activity.