Baltic Sea underwater infrastructure incidents

The Baltic Sea is traversed by many means of communication and power distribution and by pipelines.[1] These are vulnerable to incidents which might damage them, in particular involving anchoring. There have been multiple incidents which have caused disruption to undersea infrastructure.

Summary table

Baltic Sea Underwater Infrastructure Events[2][3][4][5][6]
Date Facility Type Between And Nature of event Suspects Notes
10 October 2004Bornholm Cablepower cableSwedenDenmarksevered[7]possibly Tuc Merkur[8][9]tug and barge with coal to the Avedøre Power Station
January 2010Bornholm Cablepower cableSwedenDenmarkseveredTimberland[8][10]
15 January 2013Bornholm Cablepower cableSwedenDenmarkseverednot named[11]compensation paid[8]
28 February 2022Bornholm Cablepower cableSwedenDenmarkseveredtanker Samus Swan[12]tanker's anchor fouled the cable[8]
26 September 2022Nord Stream 1 & 2gas pipelinesRussiaGermanyexplosionunknownDanish and German investigations
7 October 2023EE-S1fiberoptic communications cableSwedenEstoniapartly severedcargo ships Sevmorput and Newnew Polar Bearinvestigation concluded cable was damaged by external force
8 October 2023Balticconnectorgas pipelineFinlandEstoniaphysicalcontainer ship Newnew Polar BearChinese government later admitted the ship was at fault
18 November 2024BCS East-West Interlinkdata cableSwedenLithuaniaseveredbulk carrier Yi Peng 3investigation ongoing
18 November 2024C-Lion1data cableFinlandGermanyseveredbulk carrier Yi Peng 3investigation ongoing
25 December 2024Estlink 2power cableFinlandEstoniaseveredoil tanker Eagle Sinvestigation ongoing
26 January 2025TV & Radiofiberoptic TV & radio cableSwedenLatviaseveredVezhen or Silver Dania?suspicions of deliberate sabotage later dropped - deemed an accident
26 January 2025 (detected February)C-Lion1 submarine cabletelecommunicationsFinlandGermanydata disturbance?investigation ongoing
31 December 2025Elisa data cabledata cableFinlandEstoniadata disruptionfreighter Fitburg[13]investigation ongoing;
anchor dragged 10s of km

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Submarine Cable Map 2025". submarine-cable-map-2025.telegeography.com. Archived from the original on 16 January 2026. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  2. ↑ "Mapping Undersea Infrastructure Attacks in the Baltic Sea | Wilson Center". www.wilsoncenter.org. 24 March 2025. Archived from the original on 17 January 2026. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  3. ↑ "Subsea Sabotage: A Timeline of Disturbing Events in the Baltic Sea - Maritime Hub". maritime-hub.com. 4 January 2025. Archived from the original on 13 June 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  4. ↑ Buchholz, Katharina. "Baltic Sea Cable Incidents Pile Up—Who Is To Blame?". Forbes. Archived from the original on 21 November 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  5. ↑ "Navigating the threats to seabed infrastructure". Silobreaker. 28 May 2025. Archived from the original on 20 January 2026. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  6. ↑ "Global powers race to protect undersea cables from rising Russia-China threats". Cybernews. 21 July 2025. Archived from the original on 6 October 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  7. ↑ "Dyr reparation af bornholmer-kabel - TV 2" [Expensive repair of Bornholm cable]. nyheder.tv2.dk (in Danish). 11 October 2004. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "overrevne soekabler historien der gentager sig" [Overcrowded sea cables - history repeating itself]. TV 2/Bornholm. Archived from the original on 19 January 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  9. ↑ "Kungörelse" [Announcement]. Dagens Nyheter: 14. 2005-06-29.
  10. ↑ Godske Følg, Bjørn (12 January 2010). "Efter kabelbrud - Bornholm: Vi er verdensmestre i ø-drift" [After cable break - Bornholm: We are world champions]. ing.dk. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  11. ↑ "Höga vågor försenar lagning av kabel - Skadad elledning till Bornholm" [High waves delay cable repair - Damaged power line to Bornholm]. Ystads Allehanda: 18. 2013-01-15.
  12. ↑ "Mulig kæmpeerstatning paa vej for ødelagt soekabel" [Possible huge compensation on the way for damaged submarine cable]. TV 2/Bornholm. 3 March 2022. Archived from the original on 10 October 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  13. ↑ "Finland releases ship suspected of Baltic cable damage, orders some crew to remain". yle.fi. 12 January 2026. Archived from the original on 12 January 2026. Retrieved 12 January 2026.

Further reading

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