Gosport, United Kingdom A fishing vessel brought up a UXO in its nets between Stokes Bay, Gosport and Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The captain of the fishing boat reported the find to the Coastguard who responded with a Royal Navy EOD team. EOD inspected the UXO and decided to lower it back in the water for the time being. EOD plans to schedule a dive team to conduct a controlled detonation of the item in the upcoming days. A temporary exclusion zone has been established around the area and a notice to mariners has been issued.

[More]

Helsinki, Finland The Environment Ministry is requesting more information and details on the potential environmental impacts of the planned Baltic Sea gas pipeline including impacts resulting from disturbances and potential explosions from underwater UXO before they will consider to allow the project to move forward in Finnish waters. They are also demanding that Russia make available its own environmental assessment of the pipeline.

[More]

Belgrade, Serbia The European Commission and the Serbian Government are developing a plan and jointly funding an effort to clear UXO from the Sava and Danube rivers. The underwater UXO river clearance project is designed to address the UXO in the river beds and along the river banks to make the area safer for maritime transit. The source of the UXO was from bombing that occurred in 1999 when a 78-day bombing campaign was conducted by NATO forces to remove Serb troops from the then province of Kosovo. Due to history of the area, the potential exists for WWI and WWII era UXO to be in the area as well.

[More]

Ayrshire, United Kingdom Divers working on the Largs Promenade Ferry Pier discovered an unexploded torpedo buried within the underwater structure of the pier. The workers called the Royal Navy to report their unusual and potentially dangerous find. The Royal Navy dispatched an EOD team from Faslane Naval Base to respond and provide technical support. The pier was closed and a 100-meter safe area was established during the 4-hour incident.

[More]

Solomon Islands Divers from Australian EOD Clearance Dive Team Four and a Bomb Disposal team from the Solomon Islands Police Force are working together to clear underwater UXO remaining from WWII. The clearance effort is part of a training cooperation program between Australia and the Solomon Islands designed to train and educate the Solomon Islands Bomb Disposal Force in finding, recovering, and disposing of UXO including underwater munitions.

[More]