Kategorie: News
8,000 Fishing Weights at Two North Sea Wrecks
Two shipwrecks, lying on the bottom of the North Sea for more than eight decades, and right in the middle of them, a silent witness to decades of recreational fishing: Divers have recovered a total of 8,177 lead fishing weights - weighing more than 2.5 metric tons in total - from the SS Kilmore and the lightship LTV West-Hinder, located about 30 kilometers off Nieuwpoort.
The analysis was conducted by the Flemish Marine Institute (VLIZ) and the Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed, which is responsible for underwater heritage preservation.
An archive of lost fishing gear: 6,093 of the weights were found near the SS Kilmore, and 2,084 near the West-Hinder - both wrecks are among the 44 officially protected wrecks in the Belgian sector of the North Sea, where fishing and anchoring are now strictly prohibited. Before they were granted protected status, they were popular destinations for so-called wreck fishing, as large numbers of fish tend to gather around such structures.
The individual lead weights ranged from 43 to 1,156 grams, averaging about 312 grams. According to the researchers, it is no longer possible to determine exactly how long it took for this amount to accumulate over the decades - presumably since the 1980s, when improved navigation technology made the wrecks easier for anglers to locate.
The lead weights come from major cleanup operations that took place several years ago: A team of divers, commissioned by the Belgian health authority, initially recovered about 4.5 metric tons of marine debris from the West-Hinder; in 2023, another 8 metric tons were recovered from the wreck of the SS Kilmore - fishing nets, plastic, and, indeed, lead weights.
Vincent Van Quickenborne, who was the North Sea minister at the time, described the wreck as a “barometer for trash throughout the North Sea.” The VLIZ analysis, now published, provides a detailed classification of some of this recovered material.
For the researchers, the discovery is above all a foundation for the future: Knowing exactly which types of lead weights anglers actually use allows for more targeted development of environmentally friendly alternatives made of iron, concrete, or glass.
Why Lead Is a Problem in the Water
Lead is a heavy metal that hardly breaks down in the environment and can accumulate in organisms. Waterbirds are particularly at risk: They often mistake small pieces of lead for food or for the pebbles they need for digestion, swallow them, and die a painful death from lead poisoning - an effect that is well documented in mute swans in Great Britain, for example. Elemental lead oxidizes relatively quickly in water and thus becomes barely soluble, which limits the direct risk to fish; however, it remains a hazard at the water’s surface and for bottom-feeding birds.
The actual extent to which recreational fishing contributes to the total lead pollution in the oceans is a subject of controversy:
Angling associations point out that industry and contaminated sites account for the lion’s share of lead inputs, while conservation organizations highlight the substantial total amount of lost fishing weights across Europe - the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) estimates that, without regulation, up to 876,000 metric tons of additional lead could enter the environment over the next 20 years.
The EU Responds
This is precisely where a new EU regulation under the REACH chemicals regulation comes into play: Lead-containing fishing weights are to be phased out gradually in the future, with transition periods ranging from several months to five years, depending on the product category. Minor exceptions will remain in place, such as for lead content below one percent of the total weight. However, it will likely take some time before the transition to lead-free alternatives is complete across Europe - and the wrecks off Nieuwpoort vividly demonstrate how long lost lead persists on the seabed, even where fishing has long been banned.
Further information:
GrenzEcho
VLIZ/Recreatieve Zeevisserij
VRT NWS
Hamburg Anglers’ Association