Did you know Baltic herring nearly escalated Cold War tensions?

In the 1980s, during the Cold War, the Swedish navy was on high alert, scanning for signs of enemy submarines. They kept detecting strange underwater noises – popping and hissing sounds, which they described as sounding like “frying bacon”. They thought these sounds were most probably Soviet submarines lurking in their waters.

But here's the twist.

After investigating with the help of scientists, including Professor Magnus Wahlberg from the University of Southern Denmark, the navy discovered that the noises weren’t submarines at all – they were Baltic herrings! These fish produce small gas bubbles from their swim bladders – the non-scientific term is “fish farts” – which helps them communicate. What the navy believed to be enemy activity was actually just schools of herring “talking”.

This discovery was groundbreaking at the time and in a small way helped cool a potential escalation of tensions in the Baltic. But it also highlights how much we rely on cutting-edge technology to interpret the world around us – and just how much technology has improved since the 1980s!

Today, the European aerospace, security and defence industry continues to invest heavily in innovation and improving technologies. With advanced sonar, AI, and sophisticated underwater sensors, today’s systems are far more precise, ensuring better security and more … accurate … information.