Rusting time bombs in the Baltic

[Skybird]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...475520,00.html

Given the amount of ordnance in the Baltic some experts say the planned laying of a 1,200 kilometer gas pipeline from Russia to German along the seabed poses dangers.

[jumpy]

Nice, that Tabun stuff sounds nasty.

Same situation with the Irish sea apparently, millions of tonnes (iirc?) of surplus conventional munitions dumped by the British army/navy following the end of WW2.

That some of the chemicals could seep into the food chain is a concern...

[gnirtS]

Loads of munitions dumps in the North and Irish sea, some of it close to shore and fairly shallow which causes fun when a fishing trawler picks something up.

I see a lot of shells and so on when scuba diving in the irish sea. Look but dont touch seems sensible.

[Skybird]

There is also a German sub from WWII, operation Ceasar, which was trying to deliver rocket experts and a huge ammount of quicksilver to Japan, and was sunk by the British offshore the Norwegian coast, I think. It has been found and examined recently (TV docu some weeks ago). The ocean floor is heavily poisend with quicksilver, and action is urgently required.

Add to this the many rotting nuclear subs, and ammunitions the soviets had sunk in the Barents Sea.

the ocean - the cradle of life on earth? Could become the cradle of life's death, too.

[gnirtS]

IIRC they decided to encase that submarine in concrete.

[Jimbuna]

U-864
http://uboat.net/boats/u864.htm

[Fish]

Originally Posted by gnirtS

Loads of munitions dumps in the North and Irish sea, some of it close to shore and fairly shallow which causes fun when a fishing trawler picks something up.

I see a lot of shells and so on when scuba diving in the irish sea. Look but dont touch seems sensible.

He he :hmm:

[ASWnut101]

Originally Posted by jumpy

Nice, that Tabun stuff sounds nasty.

Same situation with the Irish sea apparently, millions of tonnes (iirc?) of surplus conventional munitions dumped by the British army/navy following the end of WW2.

That some of the chemicals could seep into the food chain is a concern...

Tabun cannot be ingested, it's a gas. It only kills via the air-ducts (Lungs) and through eye contact (Pouring liquid in your eye). But it's the worst and most deadly of the nerve agents.

[jumpy]

Yer, I looked at the wikipedia entry for Tabun already.
nasty.

The food chain stuff I was referring to was the conventional stuff, tnt and the like and other toxic contaminants as described in the Spiegel article.
I seem to remember something similar with mercury poisoning in the waters around Japan (?) some years back- it had some quite serious repercussions for anyone who ate the fish caught in the area as I recall.

[August]

Somehow Bush must be to blame for all this.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by August

Somehow Bush must be to blame for all this.

Ah, you have beaten me on that conclusion! Good to see you finally finding the right way!

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Skybird

the ocean - the cradle of life on earth? Could become the cradle of life's death, too.

If life in the sea dies soylent green will be on the menu.

[Polak]

The Baltic seabed has many interesting and dangerous things to offer.
Just outside my town in Poland, Ustka(Stolpmünde) there is a big minefield and the wreckage of Wilhelm Gustloff(R.I.P).

[Oberon]

All sorts of interesting things have washed up on our beach over the years, countless sea mines, an air-dropped mine, several torsos and other bits of bodies, a German commando force aiming to hit the radar facility at Orford Ness.... All sorts of stuff!

[Jimbuna]

Was once in a fishing boat and the net snagged a mine....we had to hang about for 6 hours till a Naval inshore patrol boat arrived to attach buoys