Baltic Sea 'drowning' in chemical weapons

One could say that at last the voice of the fishermen whose hands are burnt when removing nets from the waters of the Baltic Sea has reached the media. It turns out that decades after the end of the Second World War, it is still not forgotten. The huge quantities of chemical and biological weapons that the Allies encountered were simply packed into tanks and dumped at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Time works all the time, this is where water and chemistry from the inside and pressure help.

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It is estimated that as many as 50 000 tonnes of chemical weapons were dumped, and among the more interesting compounds are sarin, iperite and white phosphorus. We do not know either whether the amount is close to the real figure or whether it has been greatly underestimated. The fact is that on the beaches there appear pieces of something that look like amber, which when heated in the hand can ignite rapidly, burn and poison with the resulting smoke. This is how lumps of white phosphorus work, and the lethal dose is just 0.1g.

In 2012, it was white phosphorus that contaminated 13 km of coastline near our town of Ustka.

Going back to the fishermen, they find fragments of barrels or ordinary-looking sludge, which turns out to be mustard gas iperite. It is very dangerous. The effects of contact with it usually appear only after a few hours, which may not be related to the earlier catch of fish.

Decisions taken in the 1940s dictated that chemical weapons be drowned at a minimum depth of 1,000 metres, but the shallow Baltic Sea was the closest, and this minimised costs. Today, we know that some of the sinking took place at depths of 60-90 metres (Kołobrzeg, Darłowo), or even at as little as 12 metres (Dziwnów). However, it is most likely that weapons and incendiary ammunition were dumped wherever they could be found.

This is all the more reason to appeal to divers, the so-called “fanatics” of the Baltic. If you see strangely coloured water, an accumulation of oil stains at the bottom or old, cracked barrels while diving, move away from such a place as soon as possible and report the matter to the coast guard, police or harbour master’s office.

Maybe not many of you know, but “From 17 September to 1 October 2012, Naval Academy specialists participated in a research cruise on the R/V “Oceania”. The cruise was performed within the framework of research project #069 CHEMSEA: Chemical Munitions Search and Assessment co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund supporting the Baltic Sea Regional Programme.” The search was for chemical weapons storage sites. The issue concerns all the Baltic Sea countries and it would be great if together we could safely dispose of the whole “swamp”.

Source: chemsea.amw.gdynia.pl