At the latest since the end of the 2. World war, left to rot tons of bombs and shells on the bottom of the North sea and the Baltic sea. They could explode, that is the least of your worries.
To find amber, belongs to the Baltic sea vacation like the waves of the sea. Although it is not easy to find, but if you are, then you are stuck in the starting mats jewelry stone often big Surprises. The reveal, when the caramel-colored resin is polished and clear view of what is on the inside – often fossil inclusions from the ancient slumber.
It is also a 67-year-old rock collector, who went three years ago on a beach East of Kiel for a walk and some picking up, and held it for amber. It nearly cost him his life.
When phosphorus is washed up on the beach, it can be easily confused with amber.
What he held in his hands was a piece of white phosphorus. If stranded on the coasts, he seems harmless. Once it dries, ignites it, however, and with great force. Phosphorus burns at about 1300 degrees and the water not clear. Trying to do that, it forms phosphoric acid, which leads to severe burns. The phosphorus, a relic from the bombs of the 2. World war, just burns more.”
After the end of the 2. War should be disarmed, the then still existing German Reich. To it belonged also to eliminate stockpiles of Ammunition as soon as possible,” explains Ingo Ludwichowski, managing Director of NABU Schleswig-Holstein.
The ammunition was loaded on a ship, of the sea driven and tossed it overboard. The practice was so common that today, about 1.6 million tons of munitions in German seas – 1.3 million in the North sea, 300,000 in the Baltic sea.
Not a serious Problem, it was for a long time by the authorities.
The long fight for the truth
After the 2. World war should disappear bombs as quickly as possible. Today, this is a Problem, said Ingo Ludwichowski from NABU.
How big is the scale of the problem, however, was actually discovered first, the marine biologist Stefan Nehring. He actually works in the area of invasive species and should evaluate the load of the coastal waters of the German North sea. “Because it was a bit of everything, to sewage plant, no lines, and what I know. And while researching this I stumbled on Ammo sinkings,” recalls Nehring.
He knew that ammunition had been sunk in the vicinity of the island of Bornholm in the sea. Small quantities of the speech, which had landed in the sea. But Nehring found evidence that over the years, the ship’s cargo of goods via ship cargo in the sea and landed. So he began to investigate.
In the Federal archives in Koblenz, where he lives, he began to pore over mountains of documents. In the end, he was able to prove that the quantity of bombs and shells must be in the sea much larger. Calculations also had to accept the authorities, finally, finally, based on your own Numbers.
Bombs must be recovered, such as here at lake Constance. You will be blown up, contaminating your chemical components of the environment.
In the air is not a solution to chase
But what you should do with all these bombs? Now and again they had been in the past, blown up. With negative impact: “In the case of the detonation of a 500-kilogram bomb, perhaps two-thirds or three-quarters of the explosive are implemented in substance,” said Ingo Ludwichowski. “But the Rest passes first into the water and is dispersed by the blast then to the other side.”
Also the explosions have devastating consequences. “To kill a diver or a porpoise, if you are a few hundred meters away from the Explosion, and the same applies to the fish,” says Ludwichowski. “And even from several kilometers away, it has an impact on your hearing.” – Harbour porpoises and even some species of fish leave in the murky water, often alone, on their hearing to hunt or navigate.
And then the poison, there are still substances: Even conventional explosives are highly toxic. Hexanitro diphenylamine or HND, for example, were during the 2. World war by the German military extensively used for bomb-making. “HND discolored, first of all, the hands, but in this way also in the body and is carcinogenic and mutagenic,” so Ludwichowski.
If today someone disposed of the bombs, especially companies that install underwater cables or Pipelines.
Time bomb
“In the coming decades will be a huge Problem,” says Stefan Nehring. Because bombs are made of metal, and metal corrodes. And in the short or long various poisonous substances are released and end up in the Ecosystem.
There are signs that this is already happening: In fish In the Baltic several high arsenic are noticed concentrations. Poison gas ammo seems to be as a source probably. “The explosives crumbles and is so fine that it can be, for example, of mussels taken,” said Ingo Ludwichowski. “Mussels are either part of the food chain, or, in principle, also for the people available.”
The only real solution would be to retrieve the ammunition as quickly as possible and to dispose of, what would be the quantities of a gigantic and very expensive. “For reasons of state as well as nothing happens,” says Nehring. Unless it is to lay a Pipeline on the sea floor or a wind Park to be built. “Then the operator must search for ammunition and dispose of and the authorities sit back,” says Nehring.
“This is a huge problem and it is becoming more, not less,” says Ludwichowki. Not only more and more bombs are going to give rust through and their poisonous cargo price, if the metal case is gone, it will be virtually impossible to find the explosives. It’s a bet, then, is really running against time.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Bathing should be fun
The little mermaid in Copenhagen had a visit On 3. October 2013 it went on to the Baltic sea conference in the Danish capital is also a plan of action to get the inland sea back clean, so that Seenixen there. We present the most important measures.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Blue-green algae as far as the eye can see
The algae carpet that had spread in the summer of 2010 in the Bay of gdańsk, was as large as Germany. Even in this satellite image of the space Agency, ESA, it is easy to see. These cyanobacteria produce toxins, microorganisms, fish, and even people can cause damage. And you consume a lot of oxygen. This can lead to the fish dying.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Causes: Eutrophication
Cyano bacteria, it’s especially good if many of the nutrients are in the water and it gets nice and warm, as in high summer. The nitrates and phosphates are introduced in many Ways in the Baltic sea. For example, here on the manure irrigation on a field in Brandenburg. The land used to host a lot of, can be washed out of the manure and later by rain into streams and rivers.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Phosphates in the handle
Earlier, many of the phosphates came from the washing machine. Nowadays, almost all of the detergent is phosphate-free. The substances were replaced by less harmful, because the mechanical shaking of the Laundry in the machine favors the cleaning. It is different learning in dishwashers, where only a jet of water causes the cleaning. There are virtually no phosphate-free cleaner.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Only clean water comes into the river
Without modern sewage treatment plants a clean Baltic sea is not possible. This plant in Stavenhagen, is the second largest in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It was put into operation in 2002, and cleans the wastewater of 250,000 people. Add to that the wastewater from three industrial companies – one of which is a large rendering plant.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Garbage disposed of in a safe and clean
Garbage such as plastic bags, paints, Oils, and animal carcasses in the sea, just a little lost, like dioxins and furans from dirty waste incineration. Thus, modern waste incineration plants are needed, as these special waste incineration plant in Brunsbüttel at the Western end of the North-Baltic-channel. You will comply with the lowest limit values of comparable plants in Germany.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Marine diesel instead of heavy fuel oil
In the Baltic sea, more stringent regulations for ships is considered to be on the great oceans. Here are the captains need to refuel, therefore marine diesel with low sulphur content. The use of dirty Heavy fuel oil is prohibited. Also strict limit values for nitrogen oxides shall apply. There are even some ferries with liquefied natural gas. And their effluents are not allowed to guide ships into the sea.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Exercises for the case of an emergency
The action plan for the clean Baltic sea also the preparation for the event of a disaster. In spite of all the strict environment protection laws it can come at any time to an accident. Here disaster a protector of the Federal Agency for Technical relief (THW) practice the deployment of oil barriers and the cleaning of the beach. For Exercise, you take but not a real Oil: algae serve as a replacement.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?In order to avoid it in the first place so far
Especially great is the danger of a shipwreck in the depths of Winter. The ice cover on the Baltic sea, very thick, trough all the ships by a short drive, the ice-breaker. Therefore, the Minister of the environment, have set themselves the objective to make the Navigation in icy conditions through technical innovations and pilot systems more secure.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?EU external border for the wall, joyful kinds
The mitten crab is from China. It penetrates again and again in the Baltic sea, can’t reproduce there, but because it is their salty enough. Large ships have you brought once to Europe in the ballast water, which serves to stabilize the hull during travel. In the future, ships are intended to replace in front of the entrance to the Baltic sea in their ballast water.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Legacy Ammunition
For centuries the Baltic sea was used as a garbage dump. From the two world wars, approximately 300,000 tons of conventional munitions are still on the bottom of the sea, like this bomb, which had to be blown up in 2006, before the island of Rügen. Even more dangerous remnants of chemical weapons, because they can leak from rusty shells and animal and human burns.
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How is the Baltic sea clean?Life value for human and animal
So it will take a long time, until the Baltic sea is really clean, but now its inhabitants for every single environmental protection measure grateful.