On a brisk September morning off the coast of Boltenhagen, Germany, Dirk Schoenen slipped beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea, embarking on a mission that is as dangerous as it is urgent. As Schoenen descended to the murky depths, he approached a massive pile of World War II-era ammunition—just a fraction of the estimated 1.6 million tons of munitions littering the bottom of the Baltic and North Seas. With cautious precision, he removed several 12.8-centimeter shells, some still nestled in a broken wooden box, along with fragments of smaller grenades and 2-centimeter projectiles. Every move was monitored in real time by a team of engineers, divers, and seamen above, their eyes glued to a live video feed streaming from a camera attached to Schoenen’s helmet.
This painstaking operation is part of a sweeping German government initiative to confront a legacy that has lingered underwater for nearly eight decades. The project, launched in August 2025, is headquartered on the Baltic Lift—a self-propelled crane barge moored 3.7 miles off Boltenhagen, where experts recently discovered a field containing around 900 tons of old ammunition. According to the Associated Press, two teams of divers now work 12-hour shifts around the clock, sorting the corroding ordnance into baskets underwater. It’s too hazardous to bring the unstable munitions directly onto the platform, so they remain submerged until a specialized ship can transport them ashore for safe disposal.
The scale of the problem is daunting. As Los Angeles Times reports, the 1.6 million tons of ammunition—much of it deliberately dumped in 1946 at the Allies’ insistence—now pose a dual threat: the risk of spontaneous explosions and the slow release of toxic chemicals, especially TNT compounds, into fragile marine ecosystems. Over the years, strong currents have scattered this ordnance far beyond the original dumping grounds, making the task of recovery even more complex.
“This isn’t a routine job,” Schoenen, a 60-year-old veteran diver who volunteered for the Baltic Taucher team, told the Associated Press. “The challenge, of course, is that you never know what you’re going to get.” He described the extreme precautions required, including wearing three pairs of gloves to avoid direct contact with the ammunition. “Most of these things can be handled, but you mustn’t neglect caution and just randomly hit something or throw something away.”
The dangers aren’t limited to accidental detonations. As the casings of these munitions corrode, they leach toxic substances into the surrounding water. Decaying fragments of TNT—classified as carcinogenic—have been detected in the water near ammunition dumps. According to the German environment ministry, which is spearheading the cleanup, substances derived from explosives have begun to accumulate in local marine life, including mussels and fish. While the detected levels remain below safety thresholds for drinking water and marine organisms, a February study from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel warned that in some locations, “concentrations approached critical levels.” The researchers emphasized “the urgent need for munitions clearance to minimize long-term risks.”
The problem is particularly acute in the Baltic Sea, where a narrow channel connects to the North Sea and, ultimately, the Atlantic Ocean. This limited circulation means that pollutants can linger for decades, compounding the environmental threat. As the German environment ministry notes, the water simply doesn’t flush out as quickly as in other, more open bodies of water.
The German government has responded with a significant investment—100 million euros, or about $117.4 million—allocated to teams of divers and engineers tasked with both immediate recovery and the development of long-term solutions. As AP highlights, the current four-week pilot project is just the beginning. The ultimate goal is not only to retrieve and dispose of existing ammunition but to develop automated recovery methods that would minimize the need for human divers. One proposed solution involves burning the toxic material on floating industrial plants at sea, an approach that could offer a safer and more scalable way to neutralize the threat.
Volker Hesse, a marine engineer overseeing the program, told the Associated Press that this pilot and three related projects—some of which have utilized underwater robots to map and screen the seafloor—will inform the design of future offshore disposal facilities. “The findings are not just important for Germany but also of great interest to other countries because old ammunition sunk in the sea is a growing problem around the world,” Hesse explained. He pointed to similar contamination in the Black Sea, where ammunition from Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine is already causing concern. “This is definitely a global problem—one only has to think of the crises in Vietnam or Cambodia, but also here locally in the neighboring countries, the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Poland.”
The urgency of the cleanup is heightened by current geopolitical tensions. The Los Angeles Times reports that as NATO and Russia square off in the Baltic, incidents such as sabotage of undersea cables, near-daily aerial encounters, and hostile drones have become more common. The specter of new conflict adds a layer of complexity and risk to the already hazardous task of clearing decades-old munitions.
Yet, for Schoenen and his colleagues, the work remains focused and methodical. Each dive is a step toward making the Baltic Sea safer for future generations—both human and marine. The process is slow and fraught with peril, but the stakes could hardly be higher. As the toxic legacy of World War II continues to leach into the sea, the need for action grows ever more pressing.
While the German government’s commitment marks a significant step forward, the broader challenge is one that transcends borders. The lessons learned off the coast of Boltenhagen may soon inform efforts elsewhere, as nations around the world grapple with the environmental fallout of past wars and the pressing need to protect their marine environments from a hidden, underwater menace.
For now, the divers of the Baltic Lift continue their dangerous work, watched carefully by teams above and scientists around the globe. Their mission is a reminder that the consequences of conflict can persist long after the guns fall silent—and that cleaning up the past is sometimes the only way to safeguard the future.
