WWII Ordnance Is Polluting the Baltic SeaDiscarded explosives were dumped into the Baltic and North seas after World War II. Their deadly legacy is still with us.

by Javier Barbuzano

More than 1 million metric tons of discarded munitions lie scattered across the floors of the North and Baltic seas. As these devices corrode, they are releasing carcinogens and other toxins into the marine environment. Scientists monitoring pollution have found that these chemicals are now ubiquitous in some German Baltic waters.

Most of the explosives were dumped intentionally at the end of World War II, when Allied nations, burdened with massive stockpiles from both the defeated Axis and their own arsenals, found the fastest and cheapest demilitarization solution in the sea. Aerial bombs, torpedoes, depth charges, and small-caliber munitions were dumped overboard at designated sites. In German waters alone, 1.6 million metric tons of ordnance were discarded. Roughly 300,000 metric tons lie in the German Baltic Sea and the rest in the German North Sea.

In a recent study, researchers found that the chemicals not only are escaping their enclosures, but also are spreading beyond the original dump sites. Analysis of water samples collected in 2017 and 2018 from the Bay of Kiel and the Bay of Lübeck in the German Baltic revealed ammunition-related chemicals in nearly every sample tested, even those collected tens of kilometers away from the main dump sites. Pollution was also present in sediments and suspended particles closer to the most polluted areas.

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