Several World War II shipwrecks in Australian waters, holding unknown quantities of oil and chemicals, have been deteriorating ever since they sank more than 80 years ago.
Some of them are close to popular tourist towns — and with their potential to leak toxic material s into sensitive marine areas, researchers are concerned about the potential to kill marine life and impact people's livelihoods.
Dozens of wrecks have also been identified as a potential risk overseas in the Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea. "If they are close enough to shore then it will have a knock-on effect, not only for the marine eco-system, but for sea birds and animals that might feed on marine animals."
"A lot of these records are part records, or they were lost during the war so there's not necessarily complete information and some of the records are in Japanese," Dr Carter says. "That is making it corrode faster... even deepening a fishing channel nearby can cause an increase of 10-15 per cent in the corrosion rate.""A ship that should have been corroding at a rate of what you would expect at 40 metres, if you turn it upside, it would be corroding as if it was in 25 metres of water," he says.Experts say the cost of removing oil from a potentially polluting wreck is far less than cleaning up a spill.
Experts say the cost of removing oil from a potentially polluting wreck is far less than cleaning up a spill, which could be between $20 - $30 million."It's small enough that if you throw enough money at it, and throw the right methods and ideas at it, then you can actually take care of it before it becomes a massive problem," Dr Hunter says.
Sunken Shipwrecks Decaying Shipwrecks Ocean Study Underwater Research Pollution Water Pollutants Oil Toxic Material Environmental Threat Coral Sealife Sea Marine Life Environmental Conservation Serious Environmental Threat Subsea Oil Engineers Marine Archaeologists Historians Underwater Corrosion Oil Spill Oil Leak Climate Change Historic Wrecks
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