40 ships icebound in the Baltic Sea

Captains,

Shipping goes on in the Baltic despite severe winter conditions. A fleet of Swedish icebreakers go to the rescue when vessels get stuck. US and Canada may have to develop this kind of capacity some day if trade routes and energy exploration move into the Arctic.

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(CNN) -- Thirty to 40 ships -- including several passenger ships -- were stuck Thursday in ice off the coast of Sweden, said a spokesman for the Maritime Search and Rescue Center in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The area of the Baltic Sea worst hit by the ice were the waters bounded by mainland Sweden, the Stockholm archipelago and the Finnish island of Aland, said Tommy Gardebring, press officer with the Swedish Maritime Administration.

The center identified one of the passenger ships as the Amorella, with 753 passengers and 190 crew members.