MUNIMAP addresses the priority "Rich and healthy wildlife" of the EUSBSR by providing tools for timely remediation possibilities of dumped ammunitions causing significant environmental threats to the Baltic Sea. This will be achieved by designing practical tools for monitoring the threat of the different munition objects, including their impacts on marine biota by assessing the exposure, toxicity, bioavailability of the leaking substances, and the spatial spreading of contamination.

Thanks to cooperation with governmental and commercial partners who are currently carrying out remediation and underwater works it will be possible to test and evaluate the novel methods proposed by the project’s experts. This experience will benefit both decision makers and practitioners in future.

Permanent monitoring of the dumped munitions’ threat is regarded as essential for their proper and cost-efficient management. MUNIMAP partners under leadership of HELCOM will therefore create a comprehensive and practicable international monitoring strategy for Baltic Sea munitions.

The project’s central output Baltic Sea Munition Remediation Roadmap, including policy recommendations and methodology catalogue, is intended to have a wide outreach to its institutional target groups and speed up the process of cleaning up the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak from its hazardous legacy.

The project shows strong links to both PAs SAFE and HAZARDS, and the PA Hazards coordinator has been supporting the project in partner search as well as in the kick-off conference on 21 February. The project will address problems related to the reproduction and resilience of commercial fish stocks, in response to the toxic constituents of munitions and their degradation products. The assessment of bioaccumulation of contaminants in fish originating from the dumped munitions is in line with the PA Hazards aim of “All fish safe to eat".