Baltic Sea Underwater Infrastructure Events
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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.
| Date | Facility | Type | Between | And | Nature of event | Suspects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 October 2004 | Bornholm Cable | power cable | Sweden | Denmark | severed[7] | possibly Tuc Merkur[8][9] | tug and barge with coal to the Avedøre Power Station |
| January 2010 | Bornholm Cable | power cable | Sweden | Denmark | severed | Timberland[8][10] | |
| 15 January 2013 | Bornholm Cable | power cable | Sweden | Denmark | severed | not named[11] | compensation paid[8] |
| 28 February 2022 | Bornholm Cable | power cable | Sweden | Denmark | severed | tanker Samus Swan[12] | tanker's anchor fouled the cable[8] |
| 26 September 2022 | Nord Stream 1 & 2 | gas pipelines | Russia | Germany | explosion | unknown | Danish and German investigations |
| 7 October 2023 | EE-S1 | fiberoptic communications cable | Sweden | Estonia | partly severed | cargo ships Sevmorput and Newnew Polar Bear | investigation concluded cable was damaged by external force |
| 8 October 2023 | Balticconnector | gas pipeline | Finland | Estonia | physical | container ship Newnew Polar Bear | Chinese government later admitted the ship was at fault |
| 18 November 2024 | BCS East-West Interlink | data cable | Sweden | Lithuania | severed | bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 | investigation ongoing |
| 18 November 2024 | C-Lion1 | data cable | Finland | Germany | severed | bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 | investigation ongoing |
| 25 December 2024 | Estlink 2 | power cable | Finland | Estonia | severed | oil tanker Eagle S | investigation ongoing |
| 26 January 2025 | TV & Radio | fiberoptic TV & radio cable | Sweden | Latvia | severed | Vezhen or Silver Dania? | suspicions of deliberate sabotage later dropped - deemed an accident |
| 26 January 2025 (detected February) | C-Lion1 submarine cable | telecommunications | Finland | Germany | data disturbance | ? | investigation ongoing |
| 31 December 2025 | Elisa data cable | data cable | Finland | Estonia | data disruption | freighter Fitburg[13] | investigation ongoing; anchor dragged 10s of km |