Henriet, J.P.

Missiaen, T.

Open Marine Archive

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MARINE DUMP SITE RESEARCH - THE NEED FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY 
APPROACH 
Tine Missiaen & Jean-Pierre  Henriet 
Renard Centre of Marine Geology, Universiteit Gent, Vakgroep Geologie en 
Bodemkunde, Krijgslaan 281, B-9000 Gent, Belgium 
tine.missiaen@ugent.be 
For a number of decades large quantities of warfare (including chemical) 
have been dumped in the European seas, thereby forming a potential 
threat to the marine environment and the densely populated coastlines. 
Tackling this problem not only calls for international cooperation and 
mutual exchange of information, methodologies and results, but most of all 
it requires a multidisciplinary approach. Only an integrated geophysical, 
geochemical, biological, geotechnical, ecological and economical 
approach will yield an improved insight in the structure of the dump site, its 
ecosystem and its potential risks for the shoreline population and the users 
of the sea. 
 
The main aspects of a multidisciplinary approach include : 
- location/detection (side-scan sonar, multibeam, acoustic profiling, 
magneto-metry/gradiometry, resistivity);  
- sediment dynamics (side-scan/multibeam, ACDP, OBS) & benthos 
research;  
- ecotoxicology and long-term behaviour of chemical compounds; 
- monitoring: geophysical (seabed, internal structure), geochemical 
(water & sediment analysis), biological (birds, benthic infauna); 
- risk assessment (corrosion, pollutant release, accidents, economic 
effects); 
- public availability (communication, public information).  
 
In recent years several studies were carried out on the "Paardenmarkt", a 
shallow sand flat offshore Heist where a considerable amount of war 
material was dumped after the first World War. Accurate knowledge of the 
total volume of dumped material is unknown, but most estimates converge 
to a total waste of at least 35.000 tons, of which most likely about one third 
consists of chemical warfare. The dumping site extends over 3 km2, ranging 
in water depth between 1.5 and 5.5 m. The munition has been sagging and 
is largely covered under accumulating fine-grained sediments. 
 
At this moment there are no strong indications for acute danger and the 
best option seems to be to leave the dump site untouched. Regular 
monitoring of the seabed sediments and water column is being carried out, 
thereby screening for munition-related chemicals. Additional sea-bed 
monitoring allows to map the erosion/accumulation processes and detect 
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possible objects on the sea floor. Ongoing research focuses on the diffusion 
of chemical compounds and integrated 3D geophysical modeling of the 
dump site.  
 


Marine dump site research - the need for multidisciplinary approach

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