NATO kills 18 Baltic Sea porpoises

This 6 July 2018 video says about itself:

With only 500 animals left, the Baltic harbor porpoises have been declared critically endangered. Being killed as bycatch in fishing nets is the major threat for the animals, yet fishing is still permitted, even in Marine Protected Areas. In Sea Shepherd’s Perkunas campaign, the crew of the M/V Emanuel Bronner documented and monitored deadly gillnets in protected areas of the Baltic Sea. But accidental death in fishing nets is not the only human-caused threat for these animals.

Eutrophication, underwater noise, marine debris, overfishing, and bottom trawling are also damaging the Baltic Sea ecosystem, affecting both harbor porpoises and the local populations that depend on it.

Read the full commentary by Perkunas campaign leader, Reinhard Grabler here.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

’18 porpoises dead after naval exercise in Germany’

A German environmental organization says that eighteen porpoises were killed during a military war game in the Baltic Sea. That, they say, have happened during a NATO war game in September. As part of that mission, the German navy blew up 42 British mines, German media report. Porpoises are regarded as a protected species in Europe.

The war game was training to defuse sea mines. In addition, real ground mines from the First World War, left behind by the British, were blown up.

An analysis of that action shows that every explosion left a crater 5 by 1.5 meters deep and that animals and plants were destroyed in a radius of 10 to 30 meters.

Nature destroyed

According to the environmental organization NABU and the political party The Greens, the Ministry of Defense has ignored nature conservation law. The Greens estimate that up to 110,000 square meters of nature have been destroyed.

According to Nabu, NATO blew up the mines right in the nursery grounds for young porpoises.

More than forty ships from 18 countries, including the Netherlands, took part in the exercise. …

Tunnel to Denmark

The NATO mission took place at an area where there are plans for the construction of a tunnel. The connection to be made must connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish Lolland. The construction of the tunnel costs around € 7.4 billion and is largely paid for by Denmark.

Critics point out that there is more ammunition in the Fehmarnbelt strait. After the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs, rockets and mines were dumped in the Baltic Sea and North Sea. Environmental organizations have been pointing out for some time that rust-causing substances end up in seawater. According to environmental organization Nabu there is a total of 1.6 million tons of ammunition in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.