Although it may not generate headlines in the same way as other matters of national security, underwater seabed security is of vital importance. Our access to energy and ability to communicate with others around the world depend on undersea cables. They may be hidden many miles below the ocean’s surface, but they are integral to our daily lives. And the sustainability movement will only increase the necessity of seabed security in the years to come.
The NordStream pipeline blasts of September 2022 have reignited awareness of the importance of underwater seabed security. Those blasts, which led to the loss of around 800 million cubic metres of gas, according to Russia's Gazprom, also resulted in the disturbance of long-buried toxic substances that threaten marine life. But although this incident has certainly left most stakeholders in agreement that something must be done to improve underwater seabed security, what this should be exactly is less certain.
