Norwegian krill harvesting and processing giant Aker BioMarine has spent around $6 million (€5.4 million) developing a seamless process so it can safely change the crews on its three vessels in the Antarctic during the global coronavirus pandemic.

The company operates three vessels -- Antarctic Endurance, Saga Sea, Antarctic Sea – which are constantly in the waters of the Antarctic. There are 60 people on each vessel, and typically crew changes take place every three months.

However, coronavirus has disrupted the usual way of doing things, and Aker Biomarine has been forced to come up with a new, safe, virus-free way of getting people out of Antarctica as well as bringing others back in. Some crew have now been on the vessels for seven months at sea.

“When the outbreak of the pandemic happened, being onboard the vessels in Antarctica was probably the safest place on earth to be, with absolutely no other human interaction,” Kristine Hartmann, the company’s EVP of Transformation, told IntraFish.

There was a crew change planned for late March/early April but by then pretty much all countries had shut their borders making it impossible.

“We had to figure out how to bring people out of Antarctica and bring people in,” said Hartmann.

Initially the company tried to do a crew change at the beginning of March and had placed 37 men in quarantine in southern Chile. But when the Chilean government gave all foreigners 48 hours to leave the country Aker had to abort after five days of quarantine and send the replacement crew home.

“We had to communicate with the crew that it could be an indefinite amount of time out at sea,” said Hartmann.

Aker Biomarine's crew, made up of people from 30 different countries, is dominated by Norwegian and Russian nationals.

Norway imposed a lockdown at the end of March, but at the end of April some “essential businesses” were exempted from the rules. These included food businesses, which because of Aker Biomarine’s presence in the feed and aquaculture sector meant it was also exempt.

“So we started working on the crew change, which focused initially on key members – management – who were mostly Norwegian nationals,” said Hartmann.

"Our main and number one priority is to keep our staff safe and avoid infection.”

The company managed to buy testing equipment, which was a challenge in itself to source, given the entire world wanted testing kits.

Around 30 people then flew to Oslo where they were put in a very strict quarantine at an airport hotel for 10 days with nurses present.

The replacement crew underwent three tests in total. The first took place on day five in quarantine -- because signs and symptoms usually start at this point -- and the second took place around day 10, just before they left Oslo.

All crew tested negative for Covid-19 were transported to the airport and put on a chartered flight to Monte Video in Uruguay, where the company has its logistics hub. The air crews had also been in quarantine under the same strict rules.

“We had to put a high level of details in place in a very short time and had all the proper approvals and landing permits in place in Oslo,” said Hartmann.

Uruguay had also closed borders, but the company established a “clean corridor” for when the crew landed. A sanitized bus picked up the crew and it was arranged there would be no exchange of passports to limit contact. Instead copies of passports were handed over by one person.

The crew then immediately boarded Aker Biomarine’s transport vessel, La Manche, upon arrival in Montevideo, where they spent seven days on board and underwent one more test.

To minimize the risk of infection even further, key spare parts delivered on the transport vessel were also quarantined before boarding.

Military-level operations

This first crew change involved 30 people. As the company was only able to get Norwegian people in and out at this point, it changed 10 of the management on board each of the three vessels.

The next crew change, currently underway, will involve 37 people. The whole process of changing the entire crew on each three vessels will take five trips to complete.

The second trip – transferring crew mainly from Russia – is currently underway and should be complete in the next few days, Hartmann told IntraFish. Three more changeovers are planned.

This is following a similar process, except with the extra steps of first flying the crew to Moscow, then onto a charter to Oslo and then to Uruguay.

“There has been a lot of good cooperation between the various embassies to adhere to all the local rules and regulations and ensure crew not stuck in border controls but had all the proper documents in place,” said Hartmann.

“Now that we have it all figured out and have all the relevant approvals in place the process is getting smoother and should be complete by mid-August.”

However, by that point, the crew that started in May will also need to be changed again.

Throughout the pandemic, Aker Biomarine has maintained close contact with the crew, and while unable to provide specific solutions, has kept them constantly informed of what is being worked on and has been in touch with their families too.

“It is challenging not to be able to set a home date for the crew, but we are doing everything we can to get them safely home,” said Hartmann.

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