Unexploded bombs: Will the Black Sea face the same fate as the Baltic?

Ocean Calls

Called "ticking time bombs," millions of tonnes of unexploded munitions and other relics of WWII lie at the bottom of all our European seas. In an attempt to demilitarise Europe, around 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons were dumped into the Baltic Sea alone, according to HELCOM.

Today, the war in Ukraine is threatening the Black Sea once again, exacerbating an already complicated situation.

In this episode of Ocean Calls, Euronews science reporter Jeremy Wilks and his guests will discuss the complicated legacy of WWII and explore whether we can help save the Black Sea or at least make future clean-up efforts a bit easier to manage.

At the end of the episode, you’ll hear a mysterious tale of the oldest and best-preserved shipwreck ever found, thanks to the unique properties of the Black Sea.

Follow these links to read more about our guests:

• Jens Greinert, head of the Deep Sea Monitoring Research Unit at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel
• Markus Helavuori, professional secretary at the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM)
• Mikhail Son, deputy director of the Institute of Marine Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
• Viktor Komorin, head of the Ukrainian Scientific Centre for Marine Ecology
• Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz, maritime archaeologist at The National Museum of the Royal Navy and The Black Sea MAP project

Ocean Calls is produced in partnership with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

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