In brief: A unique and critical operation has been unfolding in the waters of the Bay of Lbeck, off the northern coast of Germany. Specialized clearance teams have been meticulously combing the seafloor, not for fish or treasure, but for a far more dangerous catch: discarded naval mines, torpedoes, artillery shells, and aerial bombs from World War II. Throughout September and October 2024, environmental teams deployed advanced underwater vehicles equipped with cameras, powerful lights, and sensors to hunt for submerged explosives from nearly eight decades ago. Experts carefully assessed each item from a floating platform above the underwater munitions dump before using electromagnets on robots or hydraulic excavator arms to safely pack the ordnance into sealed containers.The ongoing operation is part of a groundbreaking project to address the toxic remnants of war that litter the Baltic and North Seas. Experts estimate that approximately 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded in German waters alone, with the majority being conventional weapons. However, thousands of tons of chemical weapons lie on the seabed as well."We're not talking about a few unexploded bombs here," Germany's environment minister, Steffi Lemke, told journalists during a visit to the Bay of Lbeck in October 2024. "We're talking about millions of World War II munitions that were simply disposed of by the Allies to prevent rearmament."Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke visits the pilot project.The disposal of these munitions was a hasty operation carried out under Allied orders at the end of World War II. Governments paid local fishermen to dump boatloads of weaponry at predetermined sites, though many just scattered the ordnance wherever they wished to expedite the process. This dumping primarily occurred between 1945 and 1949.Officials overlooked the environmental impact of these underwater arsenals for decades. Scientists and authorities assumed the toxic chemicals would remain in their rusting shells or quickly disperse if released. However, recent research has revealed that the environmental hazards are far more severe than previously thought. // Related StoriesEdmund Maser, a toxicologist at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, has found evidence of TNT in mussels and fish near dump sites. His research also shows that fish living near sunken warships exhibit significantly higher rates of liver tumors and organ damage. Jacek Bedowski, a leading expert on underwater munitions dumps at the Polish Academy of Sciences, notes that conventional munitions are carcinogenic. In contrast, chemical munitions are mutagenic and disrupt enzyme function, severely impacting marine organisms.The extent of contamination is alarming. Aaron Beck, a marine chemist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, reported finding explosives in 98 percent of water samples collected during a 2018 research cruise along the German coast. While current levels of chemicals in the water are relatively low, Beck warns that the situation could deteriorate rapidly if left untreated.The 100 million ($105 million US) German government-funded project aims to develop an efficient, scalable system for clearing munitions from the seafloor. Companies like SeaTerra and Eggers Kampfmittelbergung are at the forefront of this effort, testing new technologies and compiling crucial data.Dieter Guldin, an archaeologist turned munitions disposal expert, leads SeaTerra's operations. Along with Eggers Kampfmittelbergung, SeaTerra recovered approximately 16 tons of ammunition during two months of operations in 2024.The project's next phase involves constructing a floating munitions disposal facility capable of incinerating aging explosives near the dump sites. This innovation would eliminate the need for risky and expensive transportation of ordnance to shore-based facilities.The ultimate goal is to develop a fully automated system using remote-controlled underwater vehicles to map, scan, and magnetically image the seabed. Machine learning algorithms would then assist experts in identifying and categorizing the munitions, while robotic arms would safely retrieve and store them for disposal.Image credit: SeaTerra, Eggers Kampfmittelbergung