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If you are interested in diving in the Baltic shipwrecks, please do not = come to Finland. Go to Sweden. Finland has about 6000 more-or-less well = preserved shipwrecks ranging from 5000-year-old log canoes and Viking = Age vessels to modern shipwrecks from this winter, but soon diving in = them will not be allowed any more. The Finnish Government aims to ban = recreational diving in the Finnish coastal waters as soon as possible, = because recreational divers are seen as a threat to national security. The Finnish Ministry of Defense is soon submitting to the Government a = proposal for a new Act which - if accepted by the Parliament - will in = effect stop recreational diving in large areas in the Finnish coastal = waters. The Act proposes a ban or a strict special permit procedure to = scuba diving and all but "normal" echo-sounding.=20 The so called 'restricted areas' are not proper military areas; normal = military areas are small and no entrance is allowed to them at all. = Large "restricted" sea areas cover over one thousand square kilometres, = a third of the coastal diving waters of Southern Finland. The Ministry = of Defense proposes that boating woud be allowed in these areas, but = recreational diving would in effect be prohibited. The given reason is national security - according to the Ministry, sport = divers might search and destroy underwater listening apparatus. However, = according to Finnish Sportdiver=B4s Association=B4s knowledge, no = recreational diver has ever seen one of these, let alone destroyed one. The proposal violates the constitutional right for freedom of movement = of the up to 25,000 licenced Finnish scuba divers and the livelihood of = dozens of entrepreneurs and dive shop owners. Also the EU legislation = guarantees freedom of movement. There are no comparable restrictions for = recreational diving in any other European countries. According to the proposal, diving could only be permitted with a special = permit issued by the military. Application for the permit should be = submitted six days in advance. It should specify the identity of all the = divers and the exact dive site. Thus no normal dive trips could be taken = any more, no last-minute guest divers could be taken aboard and most = importantly, no choice of dive sites according to weather conditions or = the qualifications of divers could be done. To summarize, the permit = procedure has been intentionally designed to stop recreational diving. Also, the use of side-scan sonars, magnetometers and "other means of = mapping the sea-bottom" will be banned in all Finnish waters, not just = in the restricted areas. Mika Rautiainen >I was not aware that sidescan sonar >was capable of producing such detailed high-resolution images > >Don W. >=20 > >Just so you know what they are >> diving, wrecks that is, check out this site for some beautiful side = scan >> images of wrecks dating from the 1500s to the present. >>=20 >> http://www.abc.se/~pa/sture/ >>=20 > >Its not bad when you can dive a 300 year old wreck in 30-70 meters = and find >> the mast still standing. > > >> Pete Johnson -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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