Work Package 8 is expanding munition compound concentration levels beyond the North and Baltic Seas using easy-to-use sampling kits, enabling project partners and collaborators with sea access to collect water samples for analysis at GEOMAR. So far, 30 kits have been sent to 24 institutes or individuals, including a collaboration with EFCA, to build a Europe-wide munition compound baseline for assessing environmental risks from dumped munitions. The project is still seeking collaborators, especially for the French/Belgian North Sea coast, the Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, and the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
One of the key aims of Work Package 8 (“Environmental Monitoring of chemical contamination using sensor systems”) is to expand knowledge about munition compound concentrations across European Waters. This knowledge is essential for assessing the environmental and ecological risks posed by dumped munitions, and for helping prioritise future monitoring and remediation efforts. So far, most research activities have focused on the North and Baltic Seas, but it is well known that nearly all European coastal areas were affected by either wartime activities or post-war munition dumping.
Gathering water samples for munition compound analysis usually requires time- and cost-intensive research cruises, each of which can cover only one geographical region at a time. To simplify the sampling process, we developed easy-to-use sampling kits for our project partners and collaborators. This allows people without scientific background, but with the means of going to sea, to take samples from different regions on our behalf. The samples are then sent back to GEOMAR for laboratory analysis and help us build a baseline of munition compound concentrations across most of Europe’s seas.
To date, 30 sampling kits have been dispatched to 13 countries across Europe and we would like to take the opportunity to once again thank all our collaborators for providing the samples. A total of 24 institutes and private persons have taken samples so far, including project partners from MMinE-SwEEPER, as well as collaborators from outside the project.
One successful collaboration we would like to highlight here is with the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA). Aboard the vessel Ocean Sentinel, an EFCA Liaison Officer collected samples for munition compound analysis in the understudied Mediterranean Sea on the way from Malaga to Valetta.
We are still looking for further collaborators! In particular, we need samples from the North Sea coasts of France and Belgium, the Atlantic Coasts of France and Spain, and we always appreciate samples from the Mediterranean and Black Sea. If you would like to get involved by contributing sea water samples, please reach out to ed.ramoeg@tleppaj .
Further information about the sampling procedure can be found here: Engage