environmental

Environmental Threats in

Our World’s Oceans

There have been many recent academic studies and real time experiments carried out addressing the threat posed to marine environments by sunken heavy fuel powered vessels and how this threat increases as time passes and they continue to degrade. These ships, sunk during both World Wars, are at risk of leaking harmful compounds, including oil cargo, fuels, lubricants and other hazardous noxious substances into our world’s oceans. Saltwater corrosion, in combination with destructive storms and currents, lead to these vessels degrading or rupturing, resulting in potentially catastrophic long-term effects on the marine and coastal environments.

Past, current, and ongoing surveys are being carried out on shipwrecks within the UK and Irish controlled regions by various government funded departments. However, these surveys are limited in their data production and restricted by the depth of many of the wrecks. Consequently, the states of a great number of World War wrecks remain unknown and their potential threat to the environment unmeasured.

Research & Evaluation

How BGL Can Help

BGL has been carrying out research on merchant shipwrecks in the UK, Republic of Ireland and further afield for many years, building a database of known sinking positions, accounts of the losses and the cargoes they were transporting at the time.

Whilst shallow water shipwrecks are accessible to current departments carrying out wreck surveys, resources are limited, which results in only a small percentage being addressed. 

For example, only 38% of 500 wrecks previously mapped within the Irish EEZ are identified, therefore leaving the great majority as unknown wrecks with unknown cargoes, and therefore an unknown threat to the environment.

BGL is well positioned to carry out detailed surveys of both shallow and deep-water wrecks to depths of 3000 meters of seawater which covers some 95% of UK and Irish economic zones. Furthermore, our understanding of sinking positions of wrecks within our database facilitates positive identification of wrecks previously described as ‘unknown’. 

Preliminary knowledge of a wreck, its era and its cargoes provide for an early understanding of its threat to the environment before needing to mount a survey campaign.

BGL has the unique opportunity to document the conditions of degradation at each wreck site and, from that survey, generate a detailed environmental report. By studying the construction, length of immersion, degree of burial, as well as relevant chemical, physical and biological factors, in conjunction with a comprehensive knowledge of the cargoes onboard, BGL can determine the best course of necessary action for each site. The resulting reports are then used to further evaluate and assess the wreck sites prior to any future cargo recovery operations. 

BGL BELIEVES:

• The environmental impact data gathered during these surveys should be openly shared with authorities with jurisdiction over the areas in which the wrecks reside.
  
  
• A proactive approach to the risks posed by any shipwreck is a far more ecological and financially viable method than having to deal with the probable detrimental consequences of a reactive approach.