Travelling exhibition on the dangers of munitions on the seabed launches in Bremerhaven

What are the dangers to humans and the sea from sunken wrecks and munitions on the bottom of the North Sea? The EU-funded, international project "North Sea Wrecks" under the leadership of the German Maritime Museum (DSM) / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History is investigating this question. The first results are shown in the mobile traveling exhibition, which opened on Wednesday, August 11, and can be seen until Sunday, August 15, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day in front of the extension building at the Seamen's Arm. The next stop is in November in Bruges, Belgium.

Old wrecks still lie dormant at the bottom of the North Sea: What impact do they have on the sea and on people? Interested parties can get first answers to this question until August 15: In front of the DSM in Bremerhaven, the traveling exhibition "Toxic Legacies of War - North Sea Wrecks" of the internationally staffed and interdisciplinary research project North Sea Wrecks (NSW) can be seen, which has been running since 2018. Most recently, it attracted high attention in April when participants set out on the HEINCKE for a research excursion. West of Helgoland, they took samples from the wreck of the SMS MAINZ, which sank there in World War I.

The SMS MAINZ is just one of many wrecks that still contain war equipment, weapons and toxic ammunition residues that could end up in the marine environment. In the German part of the North Sea alone, it is estimated that there are around 1.3 million tons of munitions from which hazardous pollutants can escape through corrosion. In the pop-up exhibition, the problem of dumped munitions, war wrecks and the resulting pollution in the North Sea is presented to the public and dealt with scientifically, politically as well as historically in the supporting program.

Interested people of all generations get a 360-degree insight into the project. Multimedia stations, which work contactless thanks to an optical hand tracking module corona compliant, offer a playful approach to the topic. Guests dive to the wreck themselves in a knowledge game, explore the remains and experience the living world under water. In another application, sediment, water and scrape samples can be taken virtually in the role of researchers. Additional information steles offer further results and insights on the topic of munitions and wrecks and the associated dangers for people, fish and the environment. QR codes also allow interested parties to access more in-depth information.
 
In addition to the media and reading stations, the educational concept "Gulliver's Research Adventure" explains to girls and boys of kindergarten and preschool age everyday life on board a research vessel and shows how researchers work with samples.

Following the launch in the maritime city, the mobile show will tour Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium until September 2022. The next stop is the North Sea Wrecks Conference in Bruges, Belgium, from November 23-25. Stops are planned at events focused on marine research and conservation.

North Sea Wrecks is a European interdisciplinary project with a budget of four million euros, funded by the EU through the Interreg program. Involved are eight project partners from five countries in addition to the DSM. The partners involved are: Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (Germany); Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (Belgium); Aarhus University - Department of Geoscience (Denmark); Stichting NHL Stenden Hogeschool - Maritiem Instituut Willem Barentsz (Netherlands); EGEOS GmbH (Germany); Periplus Consultancy BV (The Netherlands); Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt (Norway); and Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital - Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology (Germany).