The First and Second World Wars saw an unprecedented deployment of technologically advanced ships in warfare, at a significant cost in lives and vessels. The wrecks of these heavily armed and resourced vessels often settled on the seabed, where they continue to affect sub-aquatic ecosystems.
Managing pollution from these shipwrecks is complicated by slim data and limited international cooperation, often rendering responses too late to prevent serious harm to marine ecosystems and coastal communities. Yet hazardous shipwrecks is an issue which the Lloyd’s Register Foundation has selected as one where the deployment of its funding and knowledge networks can make an impact.
Potentially Polluting Wrecks
Of the approximately 3 million sunken and deserted vessels in the world’s seas, over 8,500 are deemed “potentially polluting wrecks” by organisations such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The greater part of these wrecks date to the world wars of the 20th century. These sundered craft contain harmful chemicals, unexploded munitions and around 6 billion gallons of heavy fuel oil. By comparison the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, one of the largest environmental disasters in world history, released 210 million US gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico – a figure some 30 times smaller.
Given shipwrecks are prone to continuing corrosion and breakdown, leaks from sunken vessels are inevitable. Severe weather events resulting from climate change will likely speed this up.
Studying the shipwreck of the MESSENGER. (Image credit: NOAA/NOS/Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary; NOAA/OAR/GLERL/FLICKR)
Image Credit: Public Domain / NOAA
A 2022 report in Frontiers in Marine Science highlighted how sediment chemistry and microbial ecology surrounding the wreck of an 80-year-old German patrol boat in the North Sea was influenced by its leaching chemicals. The V-1302 John Mann had been bombed and sank and despite the wreck being relatively benign, compared to those powered by oil, was proved to be polluting the seabed.
The researchers estimated that, in addition to munitions, shipwrecks from both world wars contained between 2.5 and 20.4 million metric tonnes of petroleum products. However, scientists have limited data to make predictions on where leaks might take place.
Responding to leaks when they do occur is also expensive, and it’s not clear who should bear the cost. Certainly for the developing nations who are often affected, many of whom were not participants in the world wars, the cost is prohibitive. In coastal nations such as the Philippines, there are limited technical and financial resources to manage the threat of hazardous wrecks.
Under the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity, ships sunk in war are not subject to the jurisdiction of any other state. In other words, they are still owned by the country they sailed for.
Improving the safety of the oceans
Oil pollution from shipwrecks is a threat which the IUCN Resolutions determine is in need of evaluation and tools with which to address it. The charity Lloyd’s Register Foundation has developed a programme of work to support this, directly funding projects focused on safety and engineering solutions.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation has set out to move the reactive, ‘emergency response’ mode of intervention towards a more strategic approach by contributing to the development of technical standards and protocols. To this end, experts are brought together through the strengthening of coalitions including the International Committee on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and The Ocean Foundation.
Spanish cruiser Almirante Oquendo, sunk 3 July 1898.
Image Credit: User Ignacio García Bailón on Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
On the other hand, Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s funding of the secretariat of the Cultural Heritage Framework Programme of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is intended to improve collaboration between ocean stewardship efforts and heritage bodies, and support initiatives relating to low carbon shipping and blue finance (climate-aware investing related to ocean-friendly projects and water supply resources).
Years of erosion on the 8,500 potentially polluting sunken vessels have shifted the issue of ocean and marine ecosystem-threatening fuel leakage to a ‘when’, bringing the topics of safety and remediation to the surface.
You can find out more about the work of The Ocean Foundation, Waves Group and Lloyd’s Register Foundation on the Project Tangaroa website: https://www.project-tangaroa.org/
