Recovered Sea Mine Lost At Sea During Response

Essex, United Kingdom A dredging vessel working 8 miles off the coast brought up a large sea mine. The captain of the dredger called the Coast Guard who responded with technical support from a Royal Navy EOD team. The EOD team evacuated all non-essential personnel from the ship and setup a 1-mile exclusion zone around the ship.

EOD identified the sea mine as a WWII era 2,000-pound German mine. The plan devised by EOD to dispose of the mine including lowering the mine to the sea floor where it then would be countered charged. However, during the lowering process which took place at rough seas, the mine broke free and presumably sunk to the bottom in 90 fee t of water. Efforts made by divers to relocate the mine were unsuccessful. Authorities plan to continue with the dives over the next few days.