Petroleum oil and mercury pollution from shipwrecks in Norwegian coastal waters

Kuria Ndungu; Björnar A Beylich; André Staalstrøm; Sigurd Øxnevad; John A Berge; Hans Fredrik Veiteberg Braaten; Morten Schaanning; Rune Bergstrøm

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.213

Petroleum oil and mercury pollution from shipwrecks in Norwegian coastal waters

Sci Total Environ. 2017 Sep 1:593-594:624-633. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.213. Epub 2017 Mar 28.

Authors

Kuria Ndungu¹, Björnar A Beylich², André Staalstrøm², Sigurd Øxnevad², John A Berge², Hans Fredrik Veiteberg Braaten², Morten Schaanning², Rune Bergstrøm³

Affiliations

¹ Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), NO-0349 Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: knd@niva.no.
² Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), NO-0349 Oslo, Norway.
³ Norwegian Coastal Administration, NO-3187 Horten, Norway.

PMID: 28363177
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.213

Abstract

Worldwide there are tens of thousands of sunken shipwrecks lying on the coastal seabed. These potentially polluting wrecks (PPW) are estimated to hold 3-25milliont of oil. Other hazardous cargo in PPW includes ordnance, chemicals and radioactive waste. Here, we present and discuss studies on mercury (Hg) and oil pollution in coastal marine sediment caused by two of the >2100 documented PPW in Norwegian marine waters. The German World War II (WWII) submarine (U-864) lies at about 150m below the sea surface, near the Norwegian North Sea island of Fedje. The submarine is estimated to have been carrying 67t of elemental Hg, some of which has leaked on to surrounding sediment. The total Hg concentration in bottom surface sediment within a 200m radius of the wreckage decreases from 100g/kgd.w. at the wreckage hotspot to about 1mg/kgd.w. at 100m from the hotspot. The second wreck is a German WWII cargo ship (Nordvard), that lies at a depth of ca. 30m near the Norwegian harbor of Moss. Oil leakage from Nordvard has contaminated the bottom coastal sediment with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The findings from this study provide useful insight to coastal administration authorities involved in assessing and remediating wreck-borne pollution from any of the tens of thousands of sunken shipwrecks.