According to a spokesman, the Ministry of Defense is investigating the suspicion that the navy may have killed the strictly protected animals in a blast of World War II mines, killing 18 porpoises in the Baltic Sea.
The Federal Ministry for the Environment sees in the action of the Navy a breach of law: The demolition in the nature reserve Fehmarnbelt would have to be coordinated in advance with the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, said a spokesman. This did not happen.
In the summer, 39 mines had been blown out of the world war during a maneuver. Subsequently, 18 dead harbor porpoises were found in the area over several weeks. The animals are under particularly strict protection. "We do not have many porpoises in the Baltic Sea," said the spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment. "That's why a figure of 18 porpoises is very worrying."
Federal Environment Ministry does not rule out legal consequences
When asked whether this could have legal consequences for the Navy, the spokesman for the Federal Ministry for the Environment said: "I can not rule that out for now." For the Federal Nature Conservation Act provides that in a nature reserve "any form of impairment is to be agreed with the authorities".
First, it must now be clarified whether the death of the animals actually has to do with the use of the Navy. "Of course you can assume a connection," said the spokesman.
The Ministry of Defense justified the decision to demolish the mines. The explosives from the Second World War were "so dangerous that they represented a danger to life and limb," said a spokesman. It would have been on the busy route in the Baltic Sea already "the fall of an anchor, the fishing net was enough to detonate these mines".
If there is a connection between the naval mission and the death of the animals, "we regret that of course," said the spokesman. The ministry is currently looking into what the authorities are in such cases, and in the process wants to "figure out how to do it better".