Environmental concerns

Laying millions of tonnes of concrete and steel across the Baltic Sea’s seabed was not only an epic logistical challenge, but also an environmental one. The potential to irreversibly damage the seafloor during the laying of a pipeline – especially of this grand scale – can be massive, displacing ecologies of ocean wildlife, injecting huge quantities of silt into the water and destabilising the landscape. As such, prior to the laying of the pipeline more than 40,000 kilometres of geophysical surveys were conducted, with thousands of regions inspected and catalogued. This allowed the optimal route to be established in order to mitigate damage. In addition, to further safeguard the sea since the installation an environmental monitoring program has been initiated that uses a fleet of specialist vessels – including remotely operated vehicles – to assess the water quality, seabed recovery and local fish, bird and mammal populations.