The Hunt For The Lost 6000 Shipwrecks Of WWII | Black Tears Of The Sea | Spark

Scattered around the coasts of the world are ticking time bombs, so far virtually unknown to the public; 6,300 wrecks, sunk in the Second World War, have been rusting away in the sea for over 70 years. The threat they pose goes way beyond all the oil spill catastrophes ever experienced. In 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground off Alaska, polluting the coast with 37,000 tonnes of leaked crude oil. That’s just a fraction of what’s assumed to lie in the wartime wrecks. Researchers estimate they still hold up to 15 million tonnes of oil.

The film takes us to the Baltic coast of Poland, to Norway, to the USA and the Pacific Ocean. We accompany scientists examining how badly the seabed is already contaminated in some places by seeping oil. They monitor critical wrecks and develop hazard scenarios. They warn that the oil in quite a few sunken ships must be pumped away as a matter of urgency.
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