Researchers found a “high volume” of depth charges and smoke floats from World War II along with chemical waste.
The waters off of the coast of Los Angeles are a major dumping site for chemical materials and as it turns out also munitions and military waste from World War II. Researchers found large amounts of depth charges, boxes of ammunition and military smoke devices on the seafloor.
That’s according to findings shared by scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, released on Friday, Jan. 5. The military waste is only part of a wider amount of material dumped into the sea that the survey mission found.
Researchers were surveying the San Pedro Basin as part of a project to map the extent of toxic waste dumping in the region. The research mission, done in collaboration with the U.S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage and the Office of Naval Research in April, used underwater drones and remote-operated vehicles equipped with sonar and HD video cameras, able to operate as deep as 6,000 meters below the surface. The survey site covered 135 square miles of the sea floor.
The exact amount of munitions and other military waste in the waters near Los Angeles was not specified, although the Scripps Institution described it as a “high volume.
