Munition im Meer

An estimated 1.6 million tons of military waste from the two world wars lie in German waters of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, spread over many different areas and often only a few kilometers from the shore. These are very different types of weapons: from cartridges for firearms to grenades, torpedoes, rockets and sea mines to large aerial bombs weighing many hundreds of kilograms. This adds up to around 300,000 tons in the Baltic Sea and 1.3 million tons in the North Sea. These are conventional munitions, which are the focus of the immediate action program. In addition, there are around 5,000 tons of chemical munitions that are not part of the immediate action programme. The casings of the conventional munitions are rusting and toxic explosive compounds are already leaking into the marine environment.