The Russian scientific vessel "Akademik Ioffe" was arrested in Denmark

In Denmark, the research vessel "Akademik Ioffe", owned by the Institute of Oceanology named after A. P.P. Shirshov of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to the Russian embassy in Denmark, the ship was detained on November 1 at the roadstead of the port of Skagen "as an interim measure in a third party claim related to the previous activities of Akademik Ioffe."

The vessel, the report says, sails under the Russian flag, is owned by the state and is used for scientific purposes. On board the detained "Akademik Ioffe" are 38 crew members and 23 scientists.

TASS, citing the Russian Embassy in Denmark, reports that the lawsuit, due to which the Akademik Ioffe vessel was detained, was filed by One Ocean Expeditions Ltd.

The Canadian company One Ocean Expeditions Ltd., according to information on its website , is engaged in individual cruises, offering, among other things, sea voyages in the Arctic, the islands of the North Atlantic and Svalbard.

In 2019, Baird Maritime reported that One Ocean Expeditions Ltd. accused the Russian authorities of seizing the Akademik Ioffe ships and the Akademik Sergei Vavilov of the same type. According to the company, the vessels that were leased to it in 2011 and 2012 were recalled to Kaliningrad "for modernization". The company was not warned about the recall; in the 2019-2020 season, the ship had to be removed from the cruise schedule.

The Russian Embassy is investigating the circumstances of the incident and is in contact with the Danish Foreign Ministry. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation is also investigating what happened, Interfax was told in the press service of the department, without going into details.