Where are wrecks and munitions located in the North Sea? What concrete dangers do they pose to people and the environment? What is the story behind the individual shipwrecks?
Kiel. Authorities will now be able to answer these questions more easily in the future. This is because the "North Sea Wrecks" project has been successfully completed after 4.5 years of intensive work. The project, carried out by nine organizations from five countries and funded by the European Union's Interreg Europe North Sea Program, provides important insights into the dangers of war wrecks, their ammunition, chemicals such as TNT, and fuels in the water. These hazards can now be better visualized.
north.io GmbH is one of the partners involved: the Kiel-based software developer specializing in geodata developed the software basis for the wreck tool as part of this project. This will enable authorities or other civilian or military users - who in the future will deal more concretely with individual wrecks in the North Sea - to manage their wreck data, perform risk assessments and prioritize wrecks to support decision-making in the most urgent cases. This analysis will also be greatly facilitated and accelerated by machine learning in the form of statistical techniques.
"It is important that our software application is now being used to improve environmental and marine food chain protection"
Jann Wendt (36), CEO of north.io, adds:
"This software tool can now be used as a blueprint for a variety of other maritime use cases, such as Critical Infrastructure Protection or even environmental parameter monitoring."
In particular, the project also investigated the extent to which munitions in the sea pose a threat to the environment and the marine food chain. The results of the scientific research work as well as methods for raising public awareness and science communication will be presented to the public in Bremerhaven on April 19 and 20, 2023. In this two-day international final symposium, the results of the project will be discussed with scientists, politicians and the interested public. It will also discuss how to deal with this challenge in the future.
"The successful conclusion of the North Sea Wrecks project demonstrates the importance of international institutions working together and the need to conduct further research in the future to understand and take action on the environmental impact of contaminated marine sites"
says Wendt.
The project, led by the Deutsches Schifffahrts Museum in Bremerhaven, has involved a wide range of European maritime stakeholders and North Sea residents. The partners of the project are:
German Maritime Museum (DSM) / Leibniz Institute of Maritime History, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), north.io GmbH, Aarhus University, VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute, NHL Stenden , Maritiem Instituut Willem Barentsz, Periplus Group, Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt - FFI and the Institute for Toxicology and Pharmacology at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein.
Furthermore, among others, the British Ministry of Defense, the Danish Mine Divers, also the Ministry of the Environment of Schleswig-Holstein are involved. Even an Australian foundation is involved - the Major Projects Foundation focuses on the Allied and Japanese wrecks from World War II in the Pacific.
Additional information on the project can be found in the DSM press release: "North Sea Wrecks"- European research project presents results | DSM Bremerhaven and on the symposium website: www.dsm.museum/nsw_symposium2023.
Note for the press:
Both Jann Wendt and the North Sea Wrecks - Project Leader at north.io, Dr. rer. nat. Simon van der Wulp, are available for inquiries or explanations even before April 19, 2023. They can explain the tool as well as the risk assessment in more detail if you are interested. Likewise, concrete examples can be pointed out.
