the onshore route was used. Proponents claimed that the Amber pipeline would cost half as much as an underwater pipeline, would be shorter, and would have less environmental impact. Critics of this proposal said it would be more expensive for the suppliers over the long-term, because the main aim of the project was to reduce transit costs. Nord Stream AG responded that the Baltic Sea would be the only route for the pipeline, and it would not consider an overland alternative. World War II graves In May 2008, a former member of the European Parliament from Estonia, Andres Tarand, raised the issue that the Nord Stream pipeline could disturb World War II graves dating from naval battles in 1941. A Nord Stream spokesman stated that only one sunken ship is in the vicinity of the planned pipeline and added that it would not be disturbed. In July 2008, it was announced that one of DOF Subsea's seismic vessels had discovered the wreck of a submarine with Soviet markings, believed to have sunk during World War II, during a survey for the planned Nord Stream pipeline in Finland's exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Finland. In addition to the wreck of the Soviet submarine, there are sunken ships on the route of Nord Stream in the Bay of Greifswald and in the Gulf of Finland. A ship in the Bay of Greifswald is one of twenty sunk in 1715 by the Swedish navy to create a physical barrier across the shallow entrance to the bay's coastal lagoon. Russian archaeologists claimed that the ship in the Gulf of Finland "was probably built in 1710 and sank during a raid aimed at conquering Finland" in 1713 during the reign of Peter the Great. See also Notes References External links Sweden and the NEGP: A Pilot Study of the North European Gas Pipeline and Sweden's Dependence on Russian Energy, (PDF) Base data report by Robert L. Larsson. June 2006 Map of the disputed between Poland and Danmark zone Original letter from Poland about the disputed area of the Baltic sea bottom (PDF) Protect the Baltic Sea A petition demanding an independent environmental impact assessment of the Nord Stream gas pipeline project A. Łoskot-Strachota, Ł. Antas, Nord-Stream on the liberalizing EU-gas-market, Center for Eastern Studies, March 2010 "Sea Change" (PDF) (Spektrum der Wissenschaft Custom Publishing, 2011) 2011 establishments in Germany 2011 establishments in Russia