Spaniards rescued from Polish sea claim they were diving for amber, but security experts raise doubts

Questions have been raised about an incident at the weekend in which three Spanish nationals were rescued by Polish coast guards in the middle of the night from the Baltic Sea during difficult weather conditions.

The men claimed to have been diving to retrieve amber, a precious material common around the Baltic Sea. They did not, however, have permission to dive, a permit to drive the speedboat, and the vessel itself was not registered. Expensive equipment was also found on the speedboat, according to local media.

Some experts have called for an investigation, pointing out that there is critical infrastructure in the area where the Spaniards were diving.

On Sunday, just before 2 a.m., the coast guard in the city of Gdynia was notified about a sinking vessel in the Gulf of Gdańsk.

Rescuers managed to find the vessel approximately 2.7 nautical miles (about 5 km) north of the shore, with three Spanish nationals on board, local news service Trójmiasto.pl reports. The men had been diving in the area for at least six hours and called for help after their speedboat broke down.

The Spaniards, along with the boat, were transported to the port of Górki Zachodnie. They told rescuers that they had been diving in search of amber, but none was found on board the vessel.

“A case like this is one in a million. Admittedly, it does happen that people dive at night, but in good weather. In a storm, the difference in water pressure alone can cause an injury or accident to a diver. What they did is rare,” one of the coast guards told Trójmiasto.pl.

Further doubts were raised after the arrival of the police. Officers have provisionally established that the boat was not equipped with basic safety features, including navigation lights, communications and lifesaving equipment. The boat’s crew was not authorised to operate it and had not obtained permission to dive.

The police’s note from the incident contains phone numbers for the crew that turned out to be inactive (and one of which was 10 digits long, which is not possible for a legitimate number). Two of the three men are believed to have already left the country, reports Trójmiasto.pl.

“The incident is worth investigating,” Adam Jawor, a former counter-intelligence officer, told news website InfoSecurity24.pl. According to Jawor, the men’s explanations “sound bizarre, to say the least”.

“It is important to note that there are a number of critical infrastructure sites in the Gulf of Gdańsk,” he said, adding that the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine is also important.

Jawor also noted the case of a Spanish-Russian journalist who is currently detained in Poland on suspicion of spying for Russian military intelligence.

Wiesław Goździewicz, a former lieutenant commander commander in the Polish navy and a lawyer, criticised the actions of the Polish authorities.

“Whether this was ‘only’ reconnaisance before a planned act of sabotage or actual preparations for such an act, we will not know for now, because the ‘genuises’ decided to end their activities by making notes and ‘swallowing’ dummy phone numbers,” he tweeted.

Jakub Wiech, editor-in-chief of the Defence24.pl news service, noted that Gdańsk is a key conduit for oil and coal imports to Poland.

Casting doubt on the Spaniards’ explanation, Wiech joked “whoever has never dived for amber in Poland in January, at night, in a stormy sea, in a boat with no markings, but with an underwater drone, and when caught gave a ten-digit phone number to police, let him cast the first stone”.

Energy analyst Wojciech Jakóbik also noted that the incident raises a number of concerns and emphasises the need to step up protection of infrastructure in the Baltic.

Main image credit: PomorskaPolicja/Twitter

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.