Antarctic-Sea

On March 31, 2026, the 'Bandero' (MMSI: 341633001), with 19 people on board, which was acquired in 2024 by a group founded by anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, and which was previously a Japanese fisheries patrol vessel, collided with the 'Antarctic Sea' off Antarctica, endangering its crew and could have caused a disaster in the same environmentally sensitive waters the activists claimed they want to protect. The activists first threw a type of steel anchor into the trawls of the "Antarctic Endurance" to destroy them. Then the 'Bandero' slowly steamed towards the stern of the 'Antarctic Sea', hitting the fishing vessel on its port side at a slight angle, coming within centimeters of striking a diesel tank and put at risk a habitat teeming with multiple whale species, seals and seabirds. The crill fishing vessel suffered abrasions. The company said its multinational crew was shaken but unharmed, and that it would pursue all available legal action. The company alerted the naval authorities in Argentina and Chile, one of which deployed a vessel to the area near the Antarctic peninsula where the collision took place. The ramming — the first in more than a decade in the Southern Ocean— caught the company off guard and resembled a “terrorist attack.” Reports with photos and video: https://apnews.com/article/antarctica-watson-krill-trawler-collision-whaling-1dcd71b2a1396709d2091818a1db2939 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-02/tas-krill-wars-back-on-in-southern-ocean/106525856 https://maritime-executive.com/article/paul-watson-activists-hit-krill-fishing-vessel-in-direct-intervention

Aker BioMarine ASA (AKBM) said the bond holders of Krillsea Group AS rejected the offer from Aker BioMarine to acquire the krill trawl vessel Thorshoevdi, Bloomber reports. Aker BioMarine acknowledges the bond holders’s decision and the company has withdrawn the offer to purchase the vessel. Aker BioMarine will actively pursue other opportunities to get a krill trawl license for another vessel, it said.