The German federal government has set up an immediate program to recover munitions in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. In order to achieve this, it has commissioned the construction and operation of a platform designed to remediate dumped munitions left over from previous world wars. Pilot projects to this end are running in the Baltic Sea, and parallel clearance concepts are in development for the North Sea. The research vessel Heincke , belonging to the Alfred Wegener Institute, is currently visiting several dumping sites in the German Bight in order to map hidden munitions under the sand and thus to prepare a pilot recovery operation. In addition, the research team on board is investigating what effect explosives released from old munitions are having on marine life.

The wreck of SMS Mainz sank in August 1914 west of Heligoland—and has already been a subject of research for the team led by Dr.…