Undersea bombs threaten marine life

Matt Rogers · Feb 26, 2009

I don't see this discussion going well so I am just sharing...

Undersea bombs threaten marine life - CNN.com

(CNN) -- Beyond the golden beaches and beneath the blue waters of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques is a site that resembles more of a munitions graveyard than a Caribbean paradise.
James Porter measures a 2,000-pound Navy bomb in the waters off the Caribbean island of Vieques.

Hundreds of corroding and unexploded bombs litter the sea floor, leaking toxins and taking a toll on nearby marine life. The munitions were left by the U.S. Navy, which had a training site on Vieques for six decades.
"We know that these munitions are leaking cancer-causing materials and endangering sea life," said marine ecologist James Porter, associate dean of the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia, who recently completed a research trip to Vieques.
Responding to a request by the governor's office of Puerto Rico, Porter tested the island's waters for the presence of radioactive material surrounding the sunken USS Killen, a World War II-era destroyer used as target practice for Navy missiles.
Instead, Porter stumbled upon another finding: cancer.
He discovered that feather duster worms, sea urchins and various types of coral found near bombs and bomb fragments contained high levels of carcinogenic material -- in some cases 100,000 times more than what is considered safe for commercially edible seafood.
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Undersea bombs threaten marine life

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Undersea bombs threaten marine life

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