Toxic Legacies of War - North Sea Wrecks Symposium 2023

Join us for the final symposium of the North Sea Wrecks project, held both in Bremerhaven (Germany) and online from April 19-20, 2023. Our project, funded by the Interreg North Sea Programme , aimed to explore the hazards that shipwrecks, underwater munition, and chemicals like TNT in the water may pose to the environment and the marine food chain. After 4.5 years of hard work, we are excited to present our scientific research results, public awareness and science communication methods, and the risk assessment tool developed in the project.

The project aims

The North Sea has many ship and aircraft wrecks, conventional munitions, Chemical Warfare Agents, bunker oil, and hazardous cargo that pose a threat to people, the environment, and blue growth operations like commercial and leisure navigation, tourism, mariculture, and offshore wind parks. Unfortunately, there is a lack of information and cooperation regarding the location of wrecks, munitions, lost materials, and sea-dumped waste, as well as its composition. Additionally, there is only fragmented action at the national level, with no joint mitigation strategy in place.

Periplus' Role

As a part of the NSW project, Periplus played a significant role as the data manager. Our responsibilities included collecting survey data and consolidating it using our geospatial subsea data platform #Gridit, ensuring that the survey data is standardized and redistributed to other partners. We also proposed to create a database that contains information about the munitions used in World War I and II in the North Sea Region. Together with Maritiem Instituut Willem Barentsz and Universit?tsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein we create a desktop study focussing on the legal, environmental, and chemical aspects on the current state of knowledge on UXO removal. The study identifies knowledge gaps in the chemical and legislation aspects and emphasizes the need for an international agreement for underwater munitions and wreck management, with a special focus on food safety regulation. By doing so, we hope to provide policymakers with guidance on what actions they should take next.

The NSW project provides useful tools for planners, response organizations, businesses, and others involved in risk management to assess and propose solutions for reducing the risk of wrecks and munitions in the North Sea. The NSW project aims to address this issue by providing a comprehensive methodology to assess, investigate, and describe data sources, including mapping maritime heritage sites. Methods used include exploring potential data and field sampling with research vessels. The project also provides a powerful network, a Decision Support Database based on case studies, a risk assessment methodology, and policy recommendations.

We invite you to join the final symposium to learn about our project's findings, including the methodology to assess and mitigate risks, the Decision Support Database, and the risk assessment tool. Our results also include the identification of knowledge gaps in the chemical and legislation aspects, the impact of different forms of UXO removal on the environment, and the UXO warehouse. By attending, you will have the opportunity to discuss and explore these findings together with scientists, politicians, and other interested individuals.

Register for the online event via dsm.museum/nsw_symposium2023 and be a part of the discussion on how we want and need to deal with this challenge in the future.