Akademik Ioffe

Akademik Ioffe is a research vessel, named after the Soviet physicist Abram Fedorovich Ioffe.

Akademik Ioffe off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada
History
Russia
Name	Akademik Ioffe
Operator	Shirshov Institute
Port of registry	1989–1992: Kaliningrad, Soviet Union 1992 onwards: Kaliningrad, Russia
Builder	Hollming, Rauma
Yard number	266
Laid down	27 February 1987
Launched	29 August 1987
Completed	9 February 1989
Identification	IMO number: 8507731 MMSI number: 273413400 Callsign: UAUN
Status	In service
General characteristics [1][2]
Tonnage	6,450 GT 1,935 NT 1,738 DWT
Length	117.17 m (384 ft 5 in)
Beam	18.22 m (59 ft 9 in)
Draft	5.90 m (19 ft 4 in)
Installed power	2 × 6CHN 40/46 (2 × 2,576 kW)
Propulsion	Two shafts; controllable pitch propellers Wärtsilä 600 kW bow and stern thrusters
Speed	16.0 knots (29.6 km/h; 18.4 mph)
Capacity	117 passengers

Akademik Ioffe, in Sisimiut, Greenland

Built in 1988, the vessel has a displacement of 6,600 tons, and a length of 364 ft (111 m).^[3] Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov were built as a joint project. Both ships feature a vertical shaft about two meters in diameter, which opens from the main deck into a special room, from which an acoustic receiver or a transmitter can be lowered to below the waterline by means of a winch. The vessels were used for experiments on the long-range propagation of sound in the ocean.

The vessel belongs to the Institute of Oceanology. P. P. Shirshov, of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

She was chartered by One Ocean Expeditions until 2019.^[4]

2018 grounding

The vessel ran aground west of the Astronomical Society Islands in the Gulf of Boothia,^[5] Nunavut, Canada in August 2018.^[6] There were 126 people on board; none were lost.^[7] The Akademik is said to have remained aground for 12 hours.^[8] The salvage effort cost Canadian taxpayers $513,025.44, in addition to Canadian Coast Guard costs.^[9]

Research expeditions

• 1st expedition - August - December 1989, together with the R/V Academik Vavilov. Six groups of researchers from the USSR Academy of Sciences. Included - attempts to measure neutrinos, to study the passage of ultra-low-frequency oscillations, etc.
• 8th expedition - June - September 2000.
• 10th expedition - October - November 2001. Geological studies in the equatorial part of the Atlantic Ocean.
• 19th expedition - autumn 2005. Hydrological sections in the Drake Passage, Bransfield Strait and the Loper Strait.
• 20th expedition - spring of 2006.
• 21st expedition - summer of 2006. Hydrological section 59°30'; from the UK shelf to the southern tip of Greenland.
• 22nd expedition - autumn of 2006.
• 23rd expedition - summer of 2007. Hydrological section 59°30' from the UK shelf to the southern tip of Greenland, to the port of Iqaluit.
• 24th expedition - the fall of 2007. Hydrological section through the Drake Passage.
• 25th expedition - summer of 2008. A hydrological section of 59 ° 30 'from the UK shelf to the southern tip of Greenland - the Farwell metro station, ending in the port of St. John's (Newfoundland)
• 29th expedition is from October to November 2009.