Thousands of tons of weapons lie at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The bottom of the Baltic Sea is just one example of how wars pollute the sea. After World War II, between 40,000 and 60,000 tons of chemical weapons were left in the Baltic Sea alone. However, Dr. Michał Czub, a biologist at the Laboratory of Modern Threats to Marine Ecosystems at the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in an interview with Euronews notes that there are also a huge number of conventional weapons that are potentially just as toxic. However, the exact effects of these compounds are not yet fully understood.
“It is estimated that in the 20th century there were up to 200,000 sea mines in the Baltic Sea, which can weigh from tens of kilograms of explosives to a ton,” he says. – It far exceeds the scale of chemical weapons.”
“Addressing the environmental consequences of the current wars”
Corrosion of weapons lying on the bottom releases toxins into the water and contaminates marine life. However, the extent of this phenomenon remains unknown. As the expert notes, it is not necessarily “the compounds that are most abundant that are potentially the most harmful.” On the other hand, those that are fewer in number may be much more harmful.”
Although the practice of dumping weapons at sea is now banned by a number of international treaties and conventions, this does not mean that weapons no longer end up in the seas, says the biologist. Exploring historical arsenals after the end of the war in the Black Sea and Ukraine will allow us to use this knowledge to potentially address the ecological consequences of the current war.”
Scientists are trying to fill knowledge gaps
Currently, there are still many gaps in knowledge that scientists are trying to fill. For example, they have been able to prove that “the use of distilled water in the laboratory and the matrix of seawater and sediment are different.” And this contradicts the idea spread after World War II that seawater neutralizes the effects of chemical weapons.
In addition, some of the decomposition products may be more toxic in water than the original compounds. That is, they were not neutralized during dumping, which was one of the assumptions, and actually led to the formation of new, often more toxic compounds.
