Russia's Krasin and Admiral Makarov icebreakers have set course for the Sodruzhestvo mother fishery ship before returning to rescue the Bereg Nadezhdy refrigerator ship, the Transport Ministry said on Tuesday.
Both fishing ships have been stranded in heavy ice flow in the Sea of Okhotsk for almost two weeks. Admiral Makarov failed to free Bereg Nadezhdy on Monday prior to the arrival of the Krasin icebreaker.
"Due to the changing weather conditions, we have decided to leave Bereg Nadezhdy in a safe area and send Krasin and Admiral Makarov to free Sodruzhestvo first and bring it back to where the refrigerator is waiting," the ministry said in a statement.
The four vessels will later move toward clear waters in a single-file convoy.
The decision was made after an emergencies ministry helicopter had conducted reconnaissance of ice floe conditions on route to the Sodruzhestvo ship.
"This will shorten the duration of the rescue effort," the statement said.
The Bereg Nadezhdy ship, the Professor Kizevetter research vessel, and the Sodruzhestvo mother fishery ship, carrying all together more than 400 people, became trapped in two-meter-thick ice in the Sea of Okhotsk on December 31. Two other ships, the Mys Yelizavety and the Anton Gurin, got stuck three days later.
On Friday and Saturday, the Admiral Makarov released the Professor Kizevetter and the Mys Yelizavety vessels from the ice trap, while the Anton Gurin managed to cope with the situation on its own.
Freeing the Sodruzhestvo is considered to be the most difficult task as Admiral Makarov and Krasin would have to coordinate their efforts to clear a wide canal in a thick ice floe to allow a wide-body vessel to reach open waters.
The rescue effort has been hampered by strong winds, low visibility and shifting ice floes in the area, the ministry said.
MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti)
