Murman Seafood sails another trawler to Svalbard's west coast
This time, the Melkart-4 was flanked by the Norwegian Coast Guard.
A couple of weeks after her sister ship trawled in the same area, the Melkart-4 follows. Both vessels are owned and operated by the sanctioned Russian fishing company Murman Seafood.
Along with Norebo, the two fishing companies were included in the EU Council's 17th sanctions package in May 2025. The sanctions were imposed due to fears of intelligence gathering. Norway adopted the same sanctions in July 2025.
The Melkart-5 was specifically mentioned in Brussel's 17th sanctions package:
"In particular Melkart-5 showed highly unusual navigation practices in the immediate vicinity of a subsea cable in the Norwegian North Sea, crossing the cable multiple times, immediately before the cable was severely damaged," the document stated.
Both Murman Seafood and Norebo are currently banned from fishing in Norway's economic zone and from docking at Norwegian ports.
Flanked by Norwegian coastguard
The sanctions however, do not apply near Svalbard because the territory is outside of the Norwegian economic zone. When fishing on the cod stock, AIS-tracking shows that the sanctioned Murman Seafood company has primarily been trawling in the western part of Svalbard's fisheries protection zone.
This part of the fisheries zone holds critical infrastructure: the Svalbard subsea cable that got damaged after the Melkart-5 crossed it multiple times in 2022, the EU document pointed out.
When the Melkart-4 headed northwards on February 16 2026, the Norwegian Coast Guard interrupted their own sailing pattern before flanking the Russian fishing vessel.
"Our Coast Guard vessels, including KV Bjørnøya, carry out sovereignty enforcement and routine monitoring of activity in the Fisheries Protection Zone around Svalbard. Regular inspections are conducted of vessels that are present and operating in the zone," the spokesperson with the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, Jonny Karlsen, says to the Barents Observer.
Furthermore, he mentions the general activity in the early months of 2026:
"At this time of year, activity is relatively low, and there are therefore few vessels available for inspection. Any potential inspection of the vessels in question is randomly selected," he states.
The Barents Observer has earlier asked Murman Seafood for a comment but has not received an answer.
