MURMANSK, June 23. /TASS/. The Northern Fleet's Hydrographic Service during the Remember War expedition in autumn will be searching for vessels of Convoy PQ-17, which was crossing the Arctic in World War II, the service's senior officer, Alexander Zubarev, told reporters on Friday.

"The key task for this season is the expedition onboard the Romuald Muklevich geographic vessel from September 2 through to October 15," he said. "The vessel will go to the Barents, Kara and Laptev Seas."

"The crew will have many tasks, where the main task is to find vessels of Convoy PQ-17, which sank near Novaya Zemlya," he added.

The Hydrographic Service has information that the convoy's three vessels sank near Novaya Zemlya's Yuzhny Island, he continued. "This is the most known unfortunate convoy, which the Nazi sank practically completely. The Nazi air assault ruined the convoy, and vessels had to sail to Murmansk on their own. Not many have made it to the destination, very many vessels sank at different locations. According to the information we have, three vessels sank near the Yuzhny Island, the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, and this year we will try to locate them," he added.

The Northern Fleet and the Russian Geographical Society's Remember War complex expedition continues in the Arctic for the third year. The participants are searching for artefacts the Barents, Kara, White Seas, the Kola Peninsula and areas around Teriberka in the Murmansk Region, as well as near island of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago.