This photo provided by Rajavartiosto (Finnish Border Guard) on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, shows the oil tanker Eagle S, background, and the Finnish Border Guard ship Turva at sea outside Porkkalanniemi, Finland. (Rajavartiosto via AP)
(Tribune News Service) — Police in Finland are transferring the seized oil tanker Eagle S closer to land as they step up their investigation into damage caused to undersea cables this week.
The operation to move the vessel to Svartbeck, an anchorage near the port of Kilpilahti, was scheduled to begin at 10:50 a.m. local time on Saturday, authorities said in a statement. The Helsinki Police Department is taking the lead, supported by Finland’s Border Guard.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation detained the vessel, sailing under the Cook Islands flag, two days ago after discovering damage to a subsea power link and several data cables as it probes for possible aggravated criminal mischief.
Authorities believe the ship’s anchor, which they found to be missing, severed the 105-mile electricity line that connects Finland and Estonia. Since then, four underwater data cables have also been experiencing disruptions.
“The new location offers a better option for carrying out investigative measures,” the police said in the statement. On-board operations by the authorities were to be suspended for the time of the transfer and resumed once the vessel is at anchor.
Police have set up a 1-nautical-mile exclusion zone around the tanker, and a no-fly zone is currently in effect around Sköldvik Bay, they said.
Kilpilahti is also where Neste Oyj’s Porvoo oil refinery is located.
Eagle S is part of the Russian shadow fleet transporting its oil, and was carrying a full load of unleaded gasoline, Finnish police said earlier.
The Eagle S was loaded with transmitting and receiving devices that effectively allowed it to become a “spy ship” for Russia, the specialist shipping publication Lloyd’s List reported on Friday, citing a source who wasn’t identified familiar with a vessel that provided commercial maritime services to the tanker in recent months.
The hi-tech equipment on the Eagle S was abnormal for a merchant ship and consumed more power from the ship’s generator, leading to repeated blackouts, it cited the source as saying.
This week’s damage is the third such incident in just over a year. Last month, a high-speed fiber optic cable in the Baltic Sea connecting Finland and Germany was severed by what was likely an external impact, and a nearby link between Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged, with authorities connecting Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 to the events.
“Ships are damaging important undersea cables in the Baltic Sea with almost monthly frequency at the moment,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the Funke media group late Friday. “This is an urgent wake-up call for us all.”
A year earlier, the anchor of Newnew Polar Bear, a Hong Kong-flagged ship, tore up at least two data cables and a gas pipeline, prompting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to step up patrols in the Baltic Sea.
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