ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE (IMO 9827891) Table Bay, Cape Town
ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE IMO 9827891 | Antarctic Krill Fishing Vessel
ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE (IMO 9827891) is a Norwegian-built krill harvesting vessel operating in the Antarctic. Explore her design, technology and maritime role.
Photographer's Note: ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE (IMO 9827891) was photographed by Vernon Chalmers in Table Bay, Cape Town. The image forms part of the Vernon Chalmers Photography Maritime Studies Project and is also published in the Shipspotting.com database.
ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE is a Norwegian-built specialised krill harvesting vessel, designed for operations in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean.
ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE
There are ships whose appearance tells us immediately what they do. Then there are vessels such as ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE, whose significance becomes much clearer when the photographer looks beyond the silhouette.At 129.6 metres in length and 23 metres in beam, the Norwegian-flagged vessel is a substantial offshore fishing ship. Her IMO number is 9827891, her callsign is LEZY, and she is registered as a fishing vessel. She was built by VARD in Norway and delivered in 2018/2019. The vessel was specifically designed for one demanding task: harvesting Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean. (VARD)
Key Vessel Specifications
- Vessel Type: Krill Fishing Vessel / Trawler
- Year Built: 2019
- Flag State: Norway
- Length Overall (LOA): 130 meters
- Beam (Width): 23 meters
- Deadweight (DWT): 6,300 tonnes
- Gross Tonnage: 12,776 GT
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A ship designed around its environment
ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE is particularly interesting because she was not converted from an existing fishing vessel. VARD describes her as a purpose-designed krill fishing vessel of its VARD 8 10 design. The design incorporates a low-resistance hull intended to combine speed and fuel efficiency with manoeuvrability, stability and good seakeeping characteristics. (VARD)
That distinction matters.
A conventional trawler adapted for Antarctic work has to accommodate its new role within an existing hull and machinery arrangement. ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE, by contrast, was conceived around the requirements of the Antarctic krill fishery from the beginning. She therefore represents a specialised piece of maritime engineering rather than simply another large fishing boat.
Her dimensions are impressive, but the numbers only tell part of the story. The vessel has a gross tonnage of approximately 12,776 tonnes, a deadweight capacity of about 6,300 tonnes, and a cargo capacity for approximately 3,150 tonnes of processed krill. (CCAMLR)
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The target is tiny
Perhaps the most fascinating contrast is between the scale of the vessel and the size of what she catches.
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a small shrimp-like crustacean, yet it occupies an enormous ecological role in the Southern Ocean. ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE therefore represents a highly sophisticated industrial response to a resource that is individually tiny but exists in vast concentrations.
The ship's purpose is not simply to catch krill and return to port. She incorporates an onboard processing facility, allowing the catch to be processed soon after being brought aboard. The vessel's design includes substantial cargo capacity for the processed product. (Aker BioMarine)
This integration of harvesting and processing is one of the features that makes ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE such an interesting subject for maritime photography. The vessel is effectively a mobile industrial processing plant operating at sea, rather than merely a platform from which a fishing net is deployed.
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Eco-Harvesting
One of the defining technologies associated with ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE is Eco-Harvesting®.
According to VARD and Aker BioMarine, the system was designed specifically for the krill fishery and incorporates a trawl arrangement intended to separate unwanted species and substantially reduce by-catch. VARD describes the technology as designed to release unwanted by-catch unharmed, with the objective of reducing by-catch to near zero. (VARD)
Whether viewed from the perspective of naval architecture, fisheries technology or environmental management, this is important: the vessel's design attempts to address the particular ecological circumstances of the Antarctic fishery rather than simply applying a conventional trawling model.
That does not remove the wider environmental debate surrounding Antarctic krill harvesting. Krill form a critical part of the Southern Ocean food web, and the scale, distribution and ecological consequences of harvesting remain subjects of scientific and conservation attention. The fishery operates within the regulatory framework of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
A vessel operating at the edge of the map
ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE is licensed under CCAMLR to fish in Subareas 48.1, 48.2, 48.3 and 48.4. The vessel's CCAMLR record identifies Norway as her flag state and The Qrill Company as owner and operator. (CCAMLR)
The operating environment is fundamental to understanding the ship.
This is not coastal fishing. The vessel is designed to work in the Antarctic Ocean, where weather, sea state, remoteness and distance from conventional support infrastructure impose very different demands from those encountered by ordinary commercial fishing vessels.
Indeed, VARD noted in 2025 that ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE operates year-round in the extreme conditions of the Antarctic Ocean, with maintenance and technical support arrangements specifically intended to reduce downtime during long deployments. (VARD)
The ship consequently embodies a particular kind of maritime endurance: not the dramatic endurance of an expedition ship battling through pack ice, but the quieter endurance of a commercial vessel repeatedly undertaking long, technically demanding operations in one of the world's most remote working environments.
From Norway to the Southern Ocean
The story of ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE began in Norway.
VARD identifies Vard Brattvaag as the outfitting yard and records the vessel as delivered in November 2018. The ship was designed by VARD Design as a VARD 8 10 krill fishing vessel for Aker BioMarine. (VARD)
Her ownership history subsequently changed. CCAMLR records show Aker BioMarine Antarctic AS as owner through May 2025, after which The Qrill Company became the recorded owner and operator. The vessel itself, however, has retained the name ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE and the callsign LEZY. (CCAMLR)
The name is appropriate.
"Endurance" is a particularly evocative word in Antarctic maritime history. It immediately recalls Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, but here the word has a more contemporary technological meaning: endurance through engineering, logistics, crew capability and reliable machinery.
Why ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE is an excellent ship-spotting subject
For the maritime photographer, ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE is considerably more interesting than a simple identification exercise.
Her 129.6-metre hull, substantial superstructure and distinctive proportions provide a strong photographic subject. But the real value comes from understanding what those features represent.
A photograph of the ship can therefore operate at several levels.
At the simplest level, it is a record of a Norwegian fishing vessel.
At another level, it is a study in specialised ship design.
Look more closely and it becomes a photograph of an industrial system: harvesting equipment, onboard processing, cargo handling, navigation, communications and crew accommodation integrated into one vessel.
And beyond that lies the Antarctic environment itself — a vast marine ecosystem in which a comparatively small crustacean supports an extraordinary range of wildlife and has become the focus of a technologically advanced commercial fishery.
That gives the photographer a much richer visual question:
What does a ship look like when an entire industrial process has been designed around one of the world's smallest commercially harvested marine organisms?
ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE provides an unusually good answer.
The maritime photograph as documentation
For ship spotting, IMO 9827891 is more than a database reference. It provides the permanent identity behind the photograph.
Names can change. Operators can change. Flags can change. Commercial roles can evolve. The IMO number remains with the vessel, providing a stable identifier for maritime documentation.
For a photographer building a systematic ship-spotting archive, recording:
ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE — IMO 9827891 — MMSI 257400000 — Callsign LEZY — Norway
turns an isolated photograph into a properly identified maritime record. (ITU)
And that is ultimately what makes this vessel such a worthwhile photographic subject. ANTARCTIC ENDURANCE is not merely a large ship passing through the frame. She is a highly specialised Norwegian-built working vessel whose design, technology and operating environment connect shipbuilding, fisheries, Antarctic logistics, marine science, environmental management and photography.
Photographic Equipment
Camera: Canon EOS R6 Mark III
Lens: Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM Lens
Photographic Genre: Maritime Photography / Ship Spotting
Post Processing: Adobe Lightroom Classic Version 15
Location: Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
Sources: VARD, CCAMLR, Gard and Aker BioMarine. (VARD)
