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When marine scientists sent underwater cameras to the ocean floor off the coast of Southern California, they expected to find the remains of barrels used decades ago to dump chemical waste.
Instead, hundreds of World War II-era weapons, including anti-submarine explosives and smoke devices, were found scattered in a rough line stretching more than a mile along the ocean floor.
Scientists Eric Terrill and Sophia Merrifield of the University of California, San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography on Friday announced the results of an underwater survey project conducted last April.
The ocean floor south of Los Angeles was an industrial dumping ground from the 1930s to the 1970s. Previous studies have shown tens of thousands of barrel-like objects scattered around, which scientists believe contain chemical waste, including the banned pesticide DDT. I thought there might be.
“That was a big surprise to us,” Terrill said in an interview. “Our expectation was that we would find barrel fragments along all these debris lines, but we started finding objects that were not barrels.”
“It’s alarming that we don’t know what’s happening on the ocean floor near the coastline,” Merrifield said.
Over the course of three weeks, researchers used sonar to map 135 square miles of the ocean floor between Catalina Island and Long Beach and captured 300 hours of high-resolution video of the ocean floor. Through a partnership with the U.S. Navy Salvage Superintendent, they created a high-scale, clear map of the ocean floor using military technology typically used to find downed aircraft.
They discovered boxes of ammunition and Hedgehog and Mark 9 depth charges, which had been loaded onto warships and dropped into the sea to deter submarines. They also discovered a Mark 1 smoke float, a type of pyrotechnic used to disguise ships during battle.
Some of the ammunition was similar in shape and size to barrels used elsewhere to process industrial waste. It was only through the use of video images and with the help of experts specializing in underwater archaeology, that scientists were able to confirm that the object was a weapon.
Terrill and Merrifield said they believe the ammunition is connected to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Long Beach Naval Shipyard maintained and repaired warships during World War II and the Korean War until it closed in the 1990s.
The U.S. Navy acknowledged in a statement that the ammunition was “likely the result of World War II-era disposal practices,” and at the time, dumping ammunition at the site was “a safe way for Navy vessels to return to the United States.” “It was approved to ensure safe disposal.” port. ”
“The Navy will review the findings and determine the best path forward to ensure risks to human health and the environment are appropriately managed,” the statement added.
Recent media attention has renewed public concern about the effects of past industrial waste off the Southern California coast. Adult sea lions in the region have a high incidence of cancer, which scientists have linked to the presence of DDT.
DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, began being used as an insecticide in the 1940s. However, it was banned in 1972 due to mounting evidence of ecological damage.
The ocean floor off the coast of California has long been known as a dumping ground for DDT waste and other types of industrial waste, from the 1930s to the 1970s. Scientists are still assessing the scale of the dump and its continuing impact on marine ecosystems.
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