The Nord Stream 1 and 2 explosions near Bornholm last September caused untold damage to the seabed in a particularly vulnerable area of the Baltic Sea, according to a new report.
The four explosions stirred up 250,000 tonnes of contaminated seabed – an area twice the size of Bornholm.
They released sediment containing toxic substances that could potentially kill several marine stocks, including Baltic cod and porpoises, both of which had breeding grounds close to the blast zones.
Difficulty reproducing
The report was carried out by researchers from Denmark, Germany and Poland – among them is Hans Sanderson from the Department of Environmental Science at Aarhus University.
“This could mean that fish that have been exposed to drugs [such as lead and TBT] will get sick. There are some of them that will die and there are some of them that will have difficulty reproducing,” Sanderson explained.
In addition, it is estimated that all guinea pigs within 4 km of the explosions were likely killed by the shock waves, and that all guinea pigs within a 50 km radius may have been deafened by the explosion.
Already an exposed area
In response to the report, the Danish Minister for the Environment, Minister Magnus Heunicke, promised that the government will “continually monitor and share the information with our neighboring countries around the Baltic Sea, so that we have an overall picture of the consequences and can follow up currently. the relevant extent”.
The explosions occurred near areas where chemical waste had previously been dumped.
“It is deeply worrying for the Baltic Sea, because the report shows that the explosion worsens the condition of a sea area that is already in a deeply serious and critical state,” says Maria Reumert Gjerding, head of Denmark’s Nature Conservation Association, the national nature. conservation association, told DR.
WWF calls for ‘ocean plan’
Bo Øksnebjerg, secretary general of the World Wide Fund for Nature, has called on the Danish and Swedish governments to come up with a ‘sea plan’ to ensure that the Baltic Sea is secured against future incidents of this magnitude.
“It was really in the worst possible place. It’s a tragedy that it happened right here, where nature is already on its knees,” he concluded.
“It’s another nail in the coffin of the Baltic Sea.”
Source: The Nordic Page