CAF Divers Helping Clear WW1 & WW2 Explosives from Baltic Sea

Eleven Canadian Forces clearance divers and support personnel began participation in OP OPEN SPIRIT 2016 on May 13 in Lithuania.

These members of Fleet Diving Unit (Atlantic) from Halifax, Nova Scotia, will work alongside personnel from the Lithuanian Naval Flotilla and 12 other partner nations until May 27 in order to clear explosive remnants of the First and Second World Wars in the Baltic Sea, according to the Canadian Forces news release.

Operation OPEN SPIRIT is a multinational naval mine clearance and ordnance disposal operation conducted on an annual basis since 1997. This mission aims to reduce the threat of unexploded ordnance throughout the Baltic Sea region, including seabed communications lines, international shipping routes, and fishing areas.