Analysis of Sea Mine Threat Decreasing in the Bight of Riga

The Bight of Riga has major importance in economical activity of Riga and Latvia in general. Therefore it is essential for it to be safe for navigation. But it is not completely so for one reason.
The Bight played a significant strategic role in the WW1 and WW2 for each of the world’s conflicting countries, which had some military interests in The Baltic. Navy ships installed a huge number of mines of various types to protect the sea from intruders. The Bight of Riga was not exclusion. The wars are over, however not all mines have been swept yet.
Latvian navy cooperates with different countries in mine countermeasure activities (MCM). A lot of work has been done, but still much has to be done. As the result of mine clearing operations such as MCOPLAT, CLEANEX, OPEN SPIRIT etc plenty of ordnance have been found and destroyed. Notwithstanding this fact, navy continues searching, as newer and newer mines are found during the exercises.
There are some reasons for that. One of them is lack of historical data. The other is that the efficiency of MCM might depend on the year season, weather and hydrological conditions of the sea.…