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.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.
No comments:
Post a Comment