The mine blast in the Baltic Sea, after 18 dead porpoises had appeared, has an aftermath. Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of the Environment Albrecht calls for the complete abandonment of such methods of ordnance clearance.
"I expect Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer that she finally pays attention to the extensive international protection status of harbor porpoises and refrains from blasting ammunition," says Jan Philipp Albrecht from the Greens. In addition, the federal government must finally present an overall strategy for the elimination of munitions dumping in the sea, as recently demanded at the Conference of Environment Ministers in Hamburg.
On the initiative of the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony, a motion had been passed in November, after which the federal government, the states and the EU should finally solve the problem of the old World War II ammunition.
The Ministry of Defense also sees a need for action, since the legal situation is apparently unclear. In response to a small request from the Greens on the incident in the Fehmarnbelt states: Given the "different responsibilities of the Federation and countries" must be the subject of "the subject of an overarching vote".
Torpedoes and blasting mines near the beach
It is urgently needed. One may not see the danger, but it is there. "In the Bay of Kiel are located in sight of popular beaches torpedo head next explosive mine," knows, for example, the marine biologist Matthias Brenner. He is researching at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).
An estimated 1.6 million tons of old war ammunition are found in German marine areas alone: about 1.3 million tons in the North Sea and 300,000 in the Baltic Sea. In addition, there are about 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons and about 280,000 tonnes in the North Sea in the Baltic Sea. Their toxic cargo also enters the food chain.
As part of the EU project "Chemsea" was investigated how the old World War II arsenal burdened the Baltic Sea ecosystem. How high the danger is, the people in charge at the Thüne Institute for Fishery Ecology wanted to read about the health of a particular type of fish.
Chemical weapons residues in food fish
"Do cods from chemical warfare sinks have poorer health and lower fitness than fish from unencumbered comparison areas?" Was their research question.
The answer was poor: Cods caught east of Bornholm - one of the most heavily polluted areas - were less fit and poorer in health than fish from unencumbered areas in the western and eastern Baltic. In 10 to 13 percent of the fish could be detected residues of chemical weapons in the fillet.
But the truth also includes: "Cod from other known and suspected sinking areas showed no differences to fish from the comparison areas." This is what the result report says.
DPA
A torpedo from the Second World War is blown up on 23 May 2017 in the Baltic Sea before Kühlungsborn (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
In the follow-up project "Daimon" (Decision Aid for Marine Ammunition), marine biologists investigated the damage caused by conventional weapons at the bottom of the Kieler Bay, where about 35,000 tons of it are rusting away. This time around a flatfish species should help, the dumplings.
Dabs are widespread in the North and Baltic Seas - and are sensitive to human-induced environmental changes. In a quarter of the fish examined, the liver was affected by tumors. The researchers attribute this to TNT residues dissolved in the water. In unencumbered areas, the rate is only five percent.
So what do you do?
With sonar technology and magnetic probes, the war waste can already be found quite well today. But just because you know where the problems are does not give you a solution. Often, the explosive devices are too unstable to be dragged ashore and disposed of there. So far, they are then blown up, as happened in August in the Fehmarnbelt. This is dangerous for the miners and animals such as porpoises and seals. In addition, the toxins are distributed over a large area in the water.
One possibility would be the so-called emission-free recovery with the help of robots, as now Schleswig-Holstein's Environment Minister Albrecht demands. They should make the use of Mienentauchern redundant. Instead, the ammunition should be remotely destroyed from a safe distance, without causing an explosion.
Research on robots
3.5 million euros is worth the federal government. With this sum, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is supporting a joint project of the University of Leipzig with the Fraunhofer Institute and partners from industry: "RoBeMM". The abbreviation stands for the "development and testing of a robotic underwater recovery and disposal process" for ammunition in coastal and shallow waters.
But it is not ready yet. Something must happen urgently. Because what lies on the seabed is not only a problem for the environment. The old ammunition from two world wars also hinders the construction of offshore wind farms and shipping.
But until it is time for robots to secretly eliminate humans' explosive and toxic waste, they continue to work according to the old method: explosives against explosives. With danger for humans and environment.
