Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Transport

Waterways Board winter navigation service acting head Martin Kaarjärv told Saarte Hääl that shipping conditions are in this region of the Baltic Sea extremely difficult due to hummock ice and the situation has not been that tough in the past decade.

Four ships on their way to Pärnu have been stuck in ice been Saaremaa and Kihnu islands for several days. Yesterday a towboat was sent to help them. Initially there were seven ships but three were transported to Pärnu with the help of a towboat.

The majority of the ships stuck in ice in the Livonian Bay are on the Riga–Kolka line where 1.5 weeks ago nearly 40 cargo ships were stuck in ice. “We have no right or capacity to intervene there,” said Kaarjärv. “They have asked for help but we don’t have enough capacity,” he said.

Icebreaking work on the Pärnu and Livonia Bays are provided by state-owned ship EVA-316 and AS PKL. Since the capacity of the helping fleet is small, ships have to stay stuck in ice for several days.