Ship wrecks exploration

About 1000 battleships and civil vessels sunk in the Baltic Sea during the World War 2, more than 300 of them belonged to the Soviet Union. Every sunken vessel might carry military cargo. So, all the unexplored shipwrecks present a potential hazard to the marine ecosystem and inhabitants. There is the Governmental judgment in Russia to draw up a Register of underwater potentially hazardous objects, in particular all the vessels which might have more than 300 kg of ammunition. Searching and exploration of the known sunken vessel there is the task to be solved by the joint team of Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Federal Ministry of Extraordinary Situations, and their collaborators. According to this plan, two surveys were already performed, the first one in the Russian waters in the Finnish Bay (2004), then nearby the Kaliningrad shore (2005). The next survey is planned for 2006 also in Russian waters in the SE Baltic.