Long lost in the depths of the ocean, shipwrecks from decades ago pose a threat to ecosystems and humans today, and the problem is getting worse, according to a marine biologist.
“What we’re actually seeing now is most of the ships have been down there for 80 years and this corrosion process accelerates over time where now a lot of them are losing the structural integrity and they’re starting to collapse unto themselves due to their own weight,” Maarten De Rijcke said in a video interview with CTV’s Your Morning from Brussels. “So we’re finally seeing tanks rupturing and a rapid release of these chemicals.”
Other experts and officials share his concern. Worried about leaking oil and chemical weapons, Pacific nations are urging Japan to clean up the shipwrecks that litter their waters.
De Rijcke says ships are made up of a complex combination of materials. They have metal hulls that can leak heavy metal such as copper, zinc and lead; paints; fire suppression systems; and oil, grease and fuel.
Additionally, war ships have explosives and chemical warfare agents that can start leaking into the environment after years of corrosion.
“So you have a very complex, constantly changing chemical footprint associated with every wreck,” he explained, adding that these situations persist for centuries.
It’s estimated that the USS Arizona, which sunk in Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, will continue leaking oil for the next 500 years, according to the National Park Service.
But De Rijcke notes a grimmer forecast.
“In the case of the USS Arizona, this has been investigated in the ’90s by the U.S. Navy and Parks services there, they expect that the wreck will also at some point violently collapse and therefore release that oil in a much more rapid pace than the 500 years.”
Watch the video above for the full interview.