Baltic Sea shipping insurance fee proposed

Shipping firms may need to pay a fee to use the Baltic Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, in order to cover the high costs of protecting undersea cables, Estonia’s defense minister said on Wednesday following a spate of breaches, reports Reuters.

“So in one moment maybe we will see that when you are passing through the Danish straits there will be a cost for the companies to pay this because this is basically an insurance fee to damaging the cables,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said.

“Let’s say that when you go to the airport you have the landing fee, you have the airport fee and this is paid in the ticket,” he told Reuters in an interview in Tokyo.

NATO said last week it would deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and drones in the Baltic Sea after a series of incidents where ships have damaged power and communications cables with their anchors in acts of suspected sabotage.

In addition to the patrols, Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said countries are weighing other measures to protect cables, including installing sensors to detect anchors dragged across the sea floor or constructing casings or walls around the cables.

But this will come at a cost, and whether countries or cable operators end up paying for it, consumers may be left ultimately footing the bill through higher taxes or utility costs.

Pevkur added that there were different options on the table and that countries would have to find a common solution.