Norwegian surveillance cable, which in theory could collect sporadic information about submarine activity, has disappeared without a trace. The Minister of Justice will now get to the bottom of the matter.
Today’s business could earlier this month bring the news that a 9.5 tonne submarine cable has disappeared without a trace from the sea depths off Bø in Vesterålen.
The subsea sensor network (LoVe Ocean) went black in April, and it was only recently that the Institute of Marine Research found that a 4.3 kilometer long cable was missing from the network. Marine Observatory LoVe is thus out of service currently.
There is high and low speculation as to what could be the reason why the cable is gone – everything from accidents to a deliberate sabotage.
The speculation is, among other things, that the Russians have removed the cable to weaken Norway’s opportunities to monitor man-made noise in the area in question – such as Russian submarine activity.
A security policy researcher with whom Nettavisen has previously spoken stated that the Russians have one own special unit which is created precisely to carry out this type of sabotage under water.
– Need to get to the bottom of the matter
Storting representative Sveinung Stensland (H), who is the Conservatives’ justice policy spokesperson, recently asked Minister of Justice and Emergency Management Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) about the Minister’s assessment of the reasons why the LoVe Ocean cable network was shut down.
flour answers Monday afternoon that there is a “need to get to the bottom of the reasons why parts of the cable have disappeared. The case has been reported to the police and the reason why the relevant cable network was put out of operation is part of the investigation. I refer, in consultation with the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Affairs, to the police and the prosecuting authority for questions related to causes. Once the reasons have been clarified, they will be considered in the government’s overall work with measures that may be relevant to prevent similar cases in the future.
– This was a simple and straightforward answer – that she can say nothing but point to the police. I think this issue requires political attention. If this is a security policy issue, then it is a serious security policy issue. If it is the case that they have deliberately removed this cable to weaken Norwegian interests, it is serious, Stensland tells Nettavisen.
This is the case
* An underwater monitoring system in northern Norway went black in April. The reason turned out to be that 4.3 kilometers of submarine cable had disappeared.
* The monitoring system was established outside Bø in Vesterålen in 2013, in collaboration between the Institute of Marine Research and Equinor. On April 3 this year, it was discovered that the cable network, totaling 66 kilometers, had been put out of action.
* Half a year after the fault was discovered, and after extensive troubleshooting, Equinor’s submarines found that 4.3 kilometers of cable, which went between two high-tech platforms, “Node 2” and “Node 3”, had disappeared, writes Today’s business.
* Equinor’s information director Sissel Rinde describes the facility as «a unique test facility for the development of new technology for environmental mapping and monitoring».
* The Institute of Marine Research tells DN that they must clarify whether there is a basis for prosecuting someone who may have broken the cable. The case will be investigated by the Troms police district. Sissel Rogne, director at the Institute of Marine Research, has contacted PST about the case, partly because the facility captures a lot of information.
* Before the data has been sent to the Norwegian Marine Data Center, they have visited the Norwegian Armed Forces’ research institute for filtering sensitive information.
Source: NTB
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– Would be a pretty spectacular news
– What do you think happened?
– The challenge is that there is a lot of speculation. We need to move on from speculation to an answer. The person I can go to is the Minister of Justice, says Stensland.
– What should Norway do if the investigation shows that it is Russia that is behind it?
– If that were to be the case, then it would be quite spectacular news. But then we must trust that our excellent people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handle this matter. I do not want to speculate on what the cause is, but expect us to find out what has happened, precisely to avoid speculation, says Stensland.
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Police attorney in the Troms police district, Ronny Jørgensen, confirmed to Nettavisen on Monday afternoon that the case is still under investigation.
– We have taken further investigative steps, says Jørgensen.
Jørgensen will not answer questions about whether there are any suspects in the case.
– Also detects sound from submarines
LoVe Ocean has been established as a research laboratory to monitor biological activity such as spawning behavior in Norwegian fish stocks in this very central area for Norwegian fishing activity.
– But because this fantastic equipment is state-of-the-art, sound from submarines and other maritime activity is also registered. Therefore, we have a collaboration with the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (FFI), which first interprets the signals from the subsea sensor network LoVe Ocean for distant signals from military activity. All other data is passed on to the Institute of Marine Research, said CEO of the Institute of Marine Research, Sissel Rogne, to The online newspaper earlier this month.
– FFI can from the signals know what kind of submarine classes there are in the area. And if you know the submarine class, you also know who owns them, Rogne said.
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NRK has made a review of five possible theories as to why the cable disappeared without a trace. NRK writes that it may either have been ocean currents, a fishing trawler, a whale or a giant octopus that shook the cable. The fifth theory is that the Russians are behind it.
FFI: – Only sporadically possible to see traces of submarine
The online newspaper has previously been in contact with FFI about the case. But then FFI could not confirm that the information provided by DN about FFI’s filtering of data from the sensor network is correct.
– Can FFI confirm that the data from LoVe could provide FFI with information about submarine activity?
– The answer is definitely no – LoVe does not provide FFI or anyone else with information about submarine activity. The Institute of Marine Research has, presumably inadvertently, stated something that unfortunately gives the completely wrong impression, wrote communications manager at FFI, Anne-Lise Hammer, in an e-mail to The online newspaper 11. november.
– The LoVe nodes have instrumentation for collecting data on the marine environment, including acoustic background noise, which can have an impact on marine life. In these background noise data, collected on a single hydrophone, it CAN very rarely if the weather is good, the distance is short and you know what you are looking for be sporadically possible to see traces of a submarine. However, it is completely wrong to think that LoVe can have the area of use as requested, Hammer replied.
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