Warmer waters will bring more chemical releases from underwater weapons sites
Terrance P. Long
Chair and CEO International Dialogues on Underwater Munitions (IDUM)
Munitions become time-expired over time, obsolete, damaged or surplus that requires disposal actions. The seas and oceans have become a major garbage dump for underwater weapons, leaving a windfall (saving) for militaries to save money rather than paying for the disposal of their waste.
The first UK recorded dumping of chemical weapons took place in the English Channel in 1925. There are 1700 underwater weapons sites today in the OSPAR Commission’s “Protected Area” for the North East Atlantic.
The 1945 Potsdam Agreement signed by the Allied Leaders following WWII led to global dumping of chemical and conventional weapons up until the 1970’s by “most of the countries” in the world.
In 1996, the Helsinki Commission stated that in 2005 chemical releases from underwater munitions sites will begin to meet one-another until they become a worldwide concern.
In 2004, the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans recommended to the Canadian Government to call on the United Nations for an urgent conference on sea-dumped weapons. The Government of Canada never followed its own Senate recommendation to call on the UN. There are more than 3000 sites on the east coast of Canada including in the Bay of Fundy.
I recently visited Digby, Nova Scotia to see the devastation for myself. What I saw made me sick! We are running out of time to stop the devastation in our seas and oceans from sea- dumped chemical and conventional weapons.
Chemical Releases (Silent Killers) from Underwater Weapons in our seas and oceans will destroy our global fish stocks.
Please SHARE, I need your help to spread the word!
Senior UXO Technical Advisor at UXOcontrol, part of the N-Sea Group
8 年Another good article Terrance, highlighting this ticking bomb that is the chemical pollution of our oceans and marine life.