A fishing research boat on Thursday pulled free the luxury cruise ship that ran aground in Greenland on Monday and stranded 206 passengers on board, after passengers said Covid-19 cases had been confirmed aboard the ship.
A view of the Ocean Explorer, a Bahamas-flagged Norwegian cruise ship with 206 passengers and crew, ... [+]
The Danish military’s Joint Arctic Command said on Facebook at 8:30 a.m. a Greenland Institute of Natural Resources ship called Taragoq had managed to free the Ocean Explorer cruise liner from the sand and sediment it had been stuck in for days—the update came 19 hours after the Taragoq's first high-tide attempt to free the ship failed Wednesday.
No further information was available as to when the Ocean Explorer will navigate away from the remote area of Greenland where it became stuck, or when the passengers on board will be able to disembark.
Steven Fraser, who is aboard the ship with his partner Gina Hill, told the Sydney Morning Herald that he had tested positive for Covid, as had several others aboard the ship.
Fraser said those on board, mostly “wealthy older people,” were still "in good spirits” and had spent their days dining in the restaurant and attending talks and presentations from the ship's crew, including lessons on how to tie nautical knots.
A view of the Ocean Explorer, a Bahamas-flagged Norwegian cruise ship with 206 passengers and crew, ... [+]
The Ocean Explorer run aground in Greenland.
The Ocean Explorer ran aground Monday more than 850 miles from Nuuk, Greenland's capital, Brian Jensen of Joint Arctic Command said in a statement. Rescue efforts weren’t expected to reach the scene until Friday, but Aurora Expeditions, the ship’s Sydney-based operator, had said there was no immediate danger to anyone on board or to the surrounding environment. Aurora Expeditions offers seven different Greenland trips with a minimum duration of 15 days at prices that range from $15,836 to more than $33,000 for a 30-day trip. Passengers currently on the ship boarded September 1 and were supposed to cruise until September 22. The increasing popularity of polar cruises has led Greenland's tourism arm to say it will no longer “support the development of conventional cruise tourism." Greenland—a self-governing territory of Denmark—saw a record number of calls in its ports last summer and a 50% rise in the number of cruises in the last year.
Greenland isn’t alone in wanting to put the kibosh on traditional cruising. Other places that have moved to limit or ban cruises because of their environmental impact, over tourism and lack of contribution to substantial economic development include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Venice, Dublin, Santorini and French Polynesia.
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