Some Norwegian fishermen off the coast of Tromsø were out and about on their vessel named Øygutt looking for halibut. Something significantly larger than fish, however, found its way into their trawl net. The fishermen caught the USS Virginia, a 115-meter-long nuclear-powered attack submarine outfitted with cruise missiles.
The ship’s crew, made up entirely of young men in their 20s, had no idea that the USS Virginia had been dragging its net for two nautical miles before its crew realized what was going on and cut it loose.
Videos by VICE
The USS Virginia, a US naval ship, was sailing near the surface when its propeller snagged a part of the fishing net. The fishermen were unaware of it until they were contacted by the US Coast Guard. They were on the way to a new spot hoping to catch more halibut, all the while blissfully ignorant to the fact that their net was now being dragged away by the setting for several excellent ’90s military thrillers.
The US Embassy in Oslo later confirmed the incident and that the submarine was operating in the area. The U.S. Navy uses the waters around Norway as a hub for resupply and crew changes in NATO’s ongoing surveillance of Russian naval activities.
Russian subs are regularly deployed from the Kola Peninsula in the northern Atlantic in the United States and NATO has a vested interest in understanding what the Russkies are up to with their super silent modern submarines. Hopefully, all these wargames can keep the fishermen out of it — which is apparently rather difficult.
You see, this isn’t the first time this has happened. A quick Google search brought up an article archived by the New York Times, seemingly originally published by UPI, titled “Soviet Submarine Is Trapped By Norwegian Fishing Wire.” The article dates back to June 20, 1984.
The short blurb tells the story of a Soviet sub trapped in the fishing wire of a Norwegian trawler for 3 ½ hours. The lesson here is that as long as the US and Russia are butting heads, Norwegian fishing boats will always get caught in the middle. Keep your Cold War the hell away from innocent Norwegian fishermen!
