No one would drop anchor where it is prohibited. This was stated to NOVA by Captain Dimitar Dimitrov, president of the European Confederation of Sea Captains' Associations.
He commented on the case of the Bulgarian ship "Vezhen", which was detained by the Swedish authorities on suspicion of sabotage. We are talking about a broken optical fiber cable between Latvia and Sweden, which, according to the authorities there, was damaged by this particular sea vessel. Formally, the ship is under the Maltese flag, but its command crew is Bulgarian, as is the ownership.
"There were strong winds and waves in the area. And the subsequent inspection of the crew of “Vezhen” hours later found that the left anchor had “leaked“ and was dragging along the bottom after its stoppers were damaged," explained the executive director of the Bulgarian Navy, Alexander Kalchev.
According to Captain Dimitrov, there is no international requirement for a system on the ship that would notify the crew that the anchor was in the water.
“I was on a ship that had such a device, but it was damaged and did not work. I haven't followed the new ships for many years, but they don't have such devices," said Captain Dimitrov.
He added that every ship is required to have a map that indicates where anchor should not be dropped, because there are telecommunications on the bottom. "The cables have their own security. But with the rapid development of technology and communications, the seas have become filled with such facilities and there is no way to protect them from everything. The Baltic Sea is shallow, there is movement of sand and silt on the bottom. And this changes the configuration of the bottom at certain moments," explained the captain.
According to him, it is very difficult for the cable to have been intentionally affected, and while the sea is rough. "I don't see a way for someone to do anything without going to the bow of the ship. But to get there in bad weather, you need to tie it with a safety rope. It has to move along the board. "It's very dangerous, no one does it in bad weather," the captain said.