Stop the Sea Blasts campaign launched

A campaign led by UK actress Joanna Lumley and supported by Marine Connection is demanding offshore wind farm developers stop blowing up old war bombs that are lurking in British waters and devastating whales and dolphins.

We are calling for the bombs to be burned out rather than detonated – a low order deflagration uses a small charge to cause the explosive contents to ignite and burn out which is much safer for marine life. There are believed to be about 100,000 tonnes of explosives left in Britain’s seas, with some wartime relics weighing up to half a tonne.

Before wind farms can be built these bombs must be cleared from the sea bed, however, detonating them can have a huge impact on cetaceans and their hearing/navigational abilities.  In 2011, a mass stranding of long-finned pilot whales occurred in Scotland and a subsequent Government report concluded that four large bombs detonated at sea by the Royal Navy were to blame for the stranding and death of 19 of these whales.