DAIMON (Decision Aid for Marine Munitions)    →    visit    DaimonProject.com

IDUM Partner and Co-Director (Terrance P. Long)

The project partners will support maritime, defense and environmental administrations in making decisions on management strategies for dumped chemical and conventional warfare in the Baltic Sea, and the Skagerrak to assess the risk associated with corroding warfare objects, such as dumped containers filled with munitions.

DAIMON will focus on the evaluation of risks associated with individual munitions, categorization of threats, and possible remediation methods. Economical and legal issues will also be addressed. Risk assessment/categorization methods will be applied in field studies in the Gulf of Finland, Bornholm and Gdańsk Deeps, Little Belt, and Skagerrak to produce examples of evaluation in different regions of the Baltic Sea. As the main result, an easy-to-use software, based on the research carried out within the project, will be presented to stakeholders (maritime administration, environmental agencies, etc.) in the Baltic Sea countries to provide them with a tool for the efficient management of the problem in their respective exclusive economic zones. The tool aims at making the knowledge gained in previous projects related to dumped munitions available to decision makers in the Baltic Sea area.

Planned project activities:

1. Performing both laboratory and in-situ experiments to assess the potential impacts of munitions on the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Food safety will also be addressed.
2. Pilot studies evaluating the risk associated with selected warfare objects, e.g., wrecks filled with chemical munitions and single corroding chemical and conventional munitions on the sea bottom. Designation of objects for removal.
3. Assessment of the different remediation techniques on the designated objects regarding their impact on the environment and their costs vs. costs of no-action.

Recommendations and training activities for relevant authorities from all Baltic Sea Region countries. Creation of a decision-supporting tool (software)