If anyone doubts how history continues to haunt us, you only have to consider the fate of the tropical Isla de Vieques off Puerto Rico. Twenty one miles long and 5 miles wide, it was once part of the Spanish Virgin Islands. In 1948 the U.S. navy arrived and nicked 70% of the island. In 1977 the Navy scuttled the hulk of the former USS Killen, a WWII Fletcher class destroyer. The Killen had been used as a guided missile target ship from 1961 - 1969. Indeed the area was used as a What wasn't well known was the Killen was also a target in Operation Hardtack a series of nuclear bomb tests carried out in the Pacific in 1958.
Today the Killen lies in shallow water in an area which once formed part of a naval gunnery and land artillery range. The area was in use from 1943 and closed down in 2003. A one hundred foot halo extends around the Killen in which nothing grows. Residents of Vieques have a 23% higher cancer rate than Puerto Rico mainlanders. However, when ecologist James Porter took samples from the Killen, he didn't find radiation. Instead, he found toxic carcinogens up to 100,000 times higher than established safe limits. Chemicals from the unexploded bombs were leaking, contaminating the surrounding sea life and seeping surreptitiously into Vieques' food chain.
Judging from the Vieques experience, if you're an island in the Pacific, chances are you have a problem with WWII unexploded ordinance. Now you'd think that the only thing crazier than dumping unexploded ordinance into the world's oceans, would be to pick them back up again, but that is just what Underwater Recovery Inc has been working on for the Puerto Rico Government since 1999. These dudes scoop up a bomb using an underwater grapple, raise it to the surface and dispose of it safely (at least that's the theory!). More job opportunities for the gaming generation!
http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/090218_UnexplodedMunitions.shtml Image: 1. USS Killen 1944, U.S. Navy, 2. Unexploded bomb, University of Georgie, 3 - 8 Munitions recovery, Underwater Recovery Inc.
Comments