¡Sumérgete en la profundidad del océano y descubre un mundo increíble! En este fascinante viaje, exploraremos el lecho marino, donde grandes volcanes de altísima temperatura amenazan con fundir plomo. Este misterioso hábitat es el hogar de los animales más grandes del planeta, desde majestuosas ballenas hasta criaturas abisales sorprendentes. A medida descendemos, experimentaremos la poderosa fuerza de los terremotos que pueden generar olas devastadoras, capaces de atravesar océanos y llegar a costas distantes.
El océano, con sus profundidades insondables, nos ofrece un ecosistema único que aún guarda muchos secretos. La diversidad de vida en estas aguas profundas es asombrosa, y cada rincón revela maravillas que desafían nuestra comprensión. Desde los fascinantes seres bioluminescentes hasta los extraños y enigmáticos habitantes de las fosas marinas, este viaje al fondo del océano nos enseñará sobre la importancia de la conservación de nuestros océanos y cómo cada especie juega un papel vital en el equilibrio de nuestro planeta.
Al unirte a nosotros en esta expedición, no solo aprenderás sobre los fenómenos naturales que ocurren en las profundidades marinas, sino también sobre los esfuerzos de investigación y conservación que son cruciales para proteger este frágil ecosistema. ¡Prepárate para zambullirte en la aventura de tu vida!
#OceanoProfundo, #VidaMarina, #ConservacionMarina
**Keywords:** lecho marino, volcanes, animales marinos, terremotos, olas letales, ecosistema oceánico, criaturas abisales, conservación del océano, bioluminescencia, profundidad del océano.
El océano, con sus profundidades insondables, nos ofrece un ecosistema único que aún guarda muchos secretos. La diversidad de vida en estas aguas profundas es asombrosa, y cada rincón revela maravillas que desafían nuestra comprensión. Desde los fascinantes seres bioluminescentes hasta los extraños y enigmáticos habitantes de las fosas marinas, este viaje al fondo del océano nos enseñará sobre la importancia de la conservación de nuestros océanos y cómo cada especie juega un papel vital en el equilibrio de nuestro planeta.
Al unirte a nosotros en esta expedición, no solo aprenderás sobre los fenómenos naturales que ocurren en las profundidades marinas, sino también sobre los esfuerzos de investigación y conservación que son cruciales para proteger este frágil ecosistema. ¡Prepárate para zambullirte en la aventura de tu vida!
#OceanoProfundo, #VidaMarina, #ConservacionMarina
**Keywords:** lecho marino, volcanes, animales marinos, terremotos, olas letales, ecosistema oceánico, criaturas abisales, conservación del océano, bioluminescencia, profundidad del océano.
Categoría
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TVTranscripción
00:00This is a critical point. It is full of ammunition. Since the end of the war, no one has cleaned
00:10this area. They have been down there for decades and no one cares.
00:16I found a report that detailed the movements of chemical weapons from the storage depots
00:20and storage areas in the United States in the 40s, 50s and 60s, in which it was said
00:28that some of those chemical weapons had been thrown into the sea. People say when they
00:36see this lake, there are no weapons here, I do not see them, all I see is a beautiful lake.
00:41How could there be ammunition here? The reality is that they are there and we are paying a
00:46high price for it.
00:50One day when we took out the nets, I perceived a strange and strong smell that made me dizzy
00:57and that my eyes were burning. I could not see well and it was difficult for me to breathe.
01:11The clock of those bombs is still running under the sea. A million tons of
01:16unused chemical weapons lie at the bottom of the sea all over the world. And its content
01:21is leaking. This is an unknown story that, thanks to science and the recent declassification
01:27of some documents, now begins to see the light.
01:36Chemical weapons, in their various forms, have a long tradition behind them, but mainly
01:42they were used during the First World War in very considerable quantities. The first
01:48major gas attack, exactly with chlorine gas, occurred during the First World War, in a
01:54six-kilometer radius, on the front of the Second Battle of Ypres. It was launched on
01:59April 22, 1915. Other gases were also manufactured, but the inflection point took place in 1917,
02:09when mustard gas was used for the first time, known as the king of the gas war.
02:15The new weapons attacked the body from the inside and from the outside. The eyes were
02:19the first to be affected, with a feeling of intense burning and a painful swelling
02:25of the eyelids, followed quickly by blindness, sometimes permanent, caused by
02:30eye opacity. The lungs were attacked at the cellular level, causing cough, hemorrhages
02:41and burning of the tissues, which caused breathing difficulties, pulmonary edema,
02:46and death up to 10 days after exposure to gas. The most visible effects occurred on the skin.
02:56This was reddened before the appearance of blisters, which were filled with a yellow liquid,
03:01and they were very painful to the touch. The interwar period was a very strange period
03:09of the chemical war. Most of the programs were secret, and the intelligence agencies
03:14knew very little about its scope, its depth and its innovations. And like the intelligence agencies
03:22of the whole world, when you do not know the truth, you assume the worst.
03:27These new facilities were created at the beginning of the current crisis. They are already in operation,
03:32and they can manufacture more mustard gas in a single day, than all that was manufactured
03:35during the First World War. Americans manufactured about 51 million chemical projectiles,
03:48a million chemical bombs, and 100,000 gas tanks ready for the chemical war.
03:54Its production was colossal, 135,000 tons of gas. The chemical war that everyone expected
04:03never took place. At the Potsdam Conference, the victorious allies decided to distribute
04:08the enemy's chemical arsenal and throw it into the sea. They considered that at that time
04:13it was the safest alternative, and they kept the most absolute secret until 2008.
04:23Chemical weapons were thrown into the sea around the world. In the Sea of Japan, in the Indian Ocean,
04:29in the Baltic Sea, in the Sea of North, in the North Atlantic, and in front of the Blue Coast, in France.
04:37Our investigation begins in Italy, with the dumps in the Mediterranean Sea.
04:46Those dumps were unknown to the general public until Gianluca Di Feo, a journalist from Milan,
04:52told the story in a bestseller entitled State Poisons.
04:57I began to be interested in Italian chemical weapons by chance, especially after
05:04September 11, 2001, due to the discussions about the invasion and the existence of
05:11chemical weapons in Iraq. It was then that I began to ask myself those questions. If Italy
05:22in the 1930s was considered a great military power in terms of chemical weapons,
05:28how many chemical weapons had been manufactured and, above all, what had been of them?
05:33The most important part of the history of chemical weapons in Italy begins in 1925,
05:39when the fascist government of Benito Mussolini consolidates its power and embarks on a colossal
05:45program of research and production of chemical weapons. Suddenly, the production of chemical weapons
05:52multiplied by ten. Numerous factories were built to produce mustard gas, arsenic
05:58and chlorine gas for its war use. The campaigns of Ethiopia and Libya offered the opportunity
06:07to test those weapons on the ground, to see which were the most effective doses,
06:13and which was the best system to disperse them, because they had human guinea pigs with which they could evaluate their effects immediately.
06:20Here we can see the amount of chemical weapons that were stored, ready to be used in Italy at the beginning of the Second World War.
06:29All of Italy, from Sicily to Sardinia, but with a higher density in the north, was full of chemical weapons.
06:35These ended up in the hands of the Allies and these in the hands of the Germans.
06:41The documents discovered by DICEO revealed details unknown until then,
06:46about how the chemical weapons of both sides ended up in the sea.
06:50As for the Italian weapons...
06:53The Germans, as this original document from the archives of the Luftwaffe reveals,
06:59already in 1944 they began to throw huge amounts of chemical weapons
07:04against the coasts of Urbino and Pesaro in the Adriatic Sea.
07:08Only in that deposit were stored a total of 8,930 tons,
07:13of which a considerable amount was thrown into the sea after receiving Hitler's authorization.
07:23As for the weapons of the Allies, a daring air attack caused them to end up at the bottom of the sea.
07:31On December 2, 1943, the Luftwaffe bombed the port of Bari,
07:36causing involuntarily the greatest chemical disaster that has ever occurred in the Mediterranean.
07:44One of the American ships, the John Harvey of the Liberty class,
07:48transported a shipment of chemical weapons.
07:51On board, it carried a quantity of more than 1,000 medium-sized air bombs.
07:57No one had informed the authority of the port and military personnel
08:01of the presence of these chemical weapons.
08:04It was a secret.
08:06But after the fire and the explosion of the ship, which literally split it in two,
08:11signs of chemical contamination began to appear.
08:15In particular, the unmistakable signs of contamination by Hyperita, mustard gas.
08:22Many military doctors, especially Americans, asked,
08:25Are there chemical weapons in the port?
08:28Because they observed in the bodies of the patients,
08:31the vesicles and also the eye injuries typical of attacks with mustard gas.
08:40The Allies kept the shipment of chemical weapons secret,
08:44for fear that the Nazis would turn it into a great propaganda victory.
08:48Their hermeticism made it difficult to effectively treat hundreds of Italians
08:52affected by the cloud of mustard gas that spread throughout the city.
09:02The bombing of December 2, 1943,
09:05caused the worst chemical disaster that has ever existed in Europe.
09:09What happened here and the fact that everything was kept secret,
09:14hiding it from the population,
09:17created a chain reaction of consequences
09:20that continued to affect the population and the ecosystem for years and years.
09:26And here in the port, there are still many bombs of all kinds.
09:31The cleaning of the port began in the 1950s,
09:34and bombs with chemical load are still found at the bottom of the sea.
09:39When the cleaning work was finished,
09:42the chemical weapons recovered in Bari were thrown into the Adriatic Sea,
09:47near the coasts of the cities of Barletta, Trani and Molfetta.
10:13My worst experience was a beautiful summer day.
10:17When we took out the nets,
10:20they were covered by a dark brown liquid that stank.
10:25It was a strange plague, a strange smell that I had not smelled before.
10:31When we finished removing the nets,
10:34the plague became so intense that we could not breathe.
10:38Then I fainted, and I don't remember anything else.
10:52But the strangest thing was that on that same day,
10:55a colleague of mine also fell ill in the afternoon,
10:59and two or three days later another colleague.
11:02And the same thing happened almost every day.
11:05It can be said that from August to November 2008,
11:09we fell ill every day we went fishing.
11:15But one thing is certain,
11:17it all started right after World War II.
11:20The accidents were repeated with the fishermen
11:23who came into contact with the substances and bombs they found in their nets.
11:28250 cases were certified, but there were many more that were never reported.
11:34There were also fatal accidents.
11:37I don't remember if it was in 1952 or 1953
11:40when the entire crew of a trawler died after returning to land.
11:46Unfortunately, it is a problem that everyone knows,
11:49but that everyone is afraid to talk about.
11:52Because if fishing is prohibited, Molfeta lives from fishing.
11:56Where would the fishermen go? What would they live from?
11:59In Molfeta there are hundreds of families who live from fishing,
12:03and no one wants to talk about these things because they are afraid.
12:10Years later, the Italian Ministry of the Environment
12:13promoted several research programs to identify the risks.
12:17The most important, called REDCOD, began in 1997.
12:34The objectives of the REDCOD project were essentially two.
12:38The first was to identify the main areas of chemical waste
12:42through bibliographic research in the military and civilian archives
12:46and interviewing the fishermen who had had some experience in that area.
12:51The second objective was to evaluate, in the areas of higher density of waste,
12:56what impact they had on the fauna of the area.
13:04The first thing we observe directly through our video cameras
13:08is that the coating of the bombs was corroded by marine corrosion after 50 years,
13:15and that the compound, which at the temperature of the sea water remained solid,
13:20was visible both inside the bomb and spreading over the marine bed.
13:25It is evident that after 50 years,
13:28that chemical compound not only preserves its toxicity,
13:31but also, due to corrosion, spreads over the marine bed
13:35and, being heavier than water, accumulates in the bottom,
13:38so the fish are in permanent contact with that chemical agent.
13:43The main species we analyzed were the common conger,
13:47in Latin conger conger,
13:50and the chicken, whose scientific name is Helicolhenus dactylopterus.
13:57Those two species live in contact with the marine bed,
14:00and their favorite habitat is the rocky substrate,
14:05so often those fish choose the corroded bombs as a place to live.
14:17The main problems are due to the known effects of mustard gas,
14:21a chemical agent that causes blisters,
14:24something that we have observed in the skin of the fish,
14:28but it also causes damage to the DNA,
14:30because it folds over the double helix of the DNA molecule and breaks it,
14:34also causing damage at the genetic level.
14:45At first, the problem consisted in locating the places
14:49where the chemical weapons had been thrown,
14:53but for decades,
14:55fishermen have taken the bombs from those places
14:58and have thrown them at other points in the seabed,
15:03and because of that, over time, the contaminated area has expanded.
15:08In the north of Europe, in the Baltic Sea,
15:11we find a similar situation.
15:13During the Second World War,
15:15it was the scene of combats between the armies of Germany,
15:18Finland and the Soviet Union.
15:21Today, the Baltic Sea is considered, without a doubt,
15:24the most polluted sea in the world.
15:28The Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted seas in the world.
15:32The Baltic Sea is considered, without a doubt,
15:34the most polluted sea in the world.
15:37There is something there.
15:41Right there, they look like air bombs.
15:44You just have to get away 2, 3 or 4 kilometers from the coast
15:48and dive 20 meters deep,
15:51and the seabed is covered with ammunition.
15:56I am a marine biologist and environmental consultant,
15:59and I have been working for 10 years in the field of weapons thrown into the sea.
16:03I am an expert in chemical weapons thrown into German waters.
16:13In a sea map, I found an area where contaminated ammunition was indicated.
16:20That intrigued me, and I asked the authorities,
16:25but they knew nothing.
16:30For months, I tried to get information
16:33about the waste in the seas of Germany.
16:37And I found that on the German coast of the North Sea,
16:40near Heligoland,
16:42they had thrown chemical weapons into the sea,
16:45and also in the fjord of Flensburg and in the bay of Lübeck.
16:50But it had always been ensured that the chemical ammunition
16:53had been thrown far from the coast,
16:56near Bornholm or in the Strait of Skagerrak,
16:59far from the beaches,
17:01so that no one could come into contact with that ammunition.
17:15We already knew that at least 1.5 million tons of conventional ammunition
17:19lay in the bed of the German seas,
17:22to which we must add the chemical weapons.
17:26So time is crucial,
17:28especially for the chemical weapons
17:30that lie in front of our coasts.
17:33It is not a very popular issue,
17:36because it would be very harmful to tourism.
17:40That is why this issue is hardly discussed publicly.
17:48The policies of the Cold War
17:50were a fundamental obstacle
17:52for the scientific study of the effects of chemical weapons in the Baltic States.
17:57With the fall of the Soviet Union,
17:59the Baltic States were able to carry out this work with total freedom.
18:03The Academy of Sciences of Poland promoted the KEMSI project.
18:08We are 11 institutions from all the Baltic Sea countries,
18:12countries like Sweden, Finland, Germany, Lithuania and Poland.
18:16Now the Baltic Sea seabed has become a resource.
18:20Every day there are more windmills, wind parks, cables, etc. on the seabed,
18:25so it is not safe to work without more exhaustive knowledge.
18:32Basically, we do an assessment of the risks
18:35that the armament of the Second World War
18:38poured into the Baltic Sea implies,
18:41and we try to determine the location of ammunition,
18:45the contamination of the seabed
18:48and the impact it could have on the ecosystem.
18:54We are in a large-depth landfill in Bornholm,
18:57the largest garbage dump in the Baltic Sea.
19:01There are more than 30,000 tons of abandoned ammunition here.
19:04They believed that by throwing them in the Bornholm pit,
19:07which is covered with sandy sediments,
19:10they would not move to other areas of the Baltic,
19:13because they believed that it was a stable area,
19:16without deep currents or movements of the water,
19:19and that they would remain in the place where they were thrown.
19:24Now we know that the salty water that comes from the North Sea
19:28crosses this area and reaches other areas of the Baltic,
19:33so that if the sediments are contaminated,
19:36that contamination could spread to other areas of the Baltic.
19:47That is why we decided to collect sediment samples
19:50very close to those objects,
19:52half a meter when it was possible,
19:55something that we can only do with a robot,
19:58because with the robot we can take samples of the sediments
20:02most likely contaminated by mustard gas
20:05or by any other chemical agent.
20:10Sometimes we discover that the coatings of those artifacts
20:14are completely corroded,
20:16and that there are lumps of the chemical agent in the bottom of the sea.
20:20It is leaking into the environment,
20:22and we do not know at what speed it does,
20:24because there are objects that are intact
20:26and others that are completely corroded.
20:29And it seems that the sea degrades them in more stable forms.
20:34But some of those more stable forms
20:36are still as toxic as the original chemical agents.
20:41Mustard gas decomposes into thiodiglycol,
20:44which can be completely hydrolyzed in seawater,
20:47becoming sulphur, carbon and hydrogen,
20:53which are harmless substances.
20:56While on the other hand,
20:58the compounds derived from arsenic
21:01finally decompose into inorganic arsenic,
21:04and of course arsenic is a poison.
21:11What is this?
21:16So far, we have carried out three expeditions
21:19to the places of the sediments to collect fish,
21:22mainly cod.
21:25And what we have seen
21:27is a higher frequency of diseases in fish
21:30and also a certain impact on general toxicity,
21:34because those compounds are highly mutagenic.
21:39Our colleagues from Lithuania
21:41have been able to observe blood cells that had mutated.
21:45We have not yet detected
21:47toxic levels of arsenic in the tissues,
21:50although we have detected arsenic in the urine of the fish.
21:55So it seems that it is affecting the health of the fish,
21:59but not to the point of representing a danger to human consumption.
22:04There are many pollutant substances in their environment
22:08that can cause similar effects,
22:11for example, organic pollutants, heavy metals, etc.
22:15Everything indicates that chemical weapons are not the only factor,
22:19but a factor that enhances environmental damage.
22:33If you look around, you will see at least 11 fishing boats,
22:37and it is forbidden to fish in this area,
22:41especially for chemical weapons.
22:44So it seems that fishermen are not very concerned
22:48about the presence of chemical weapons in the Baltic.
22:53The fishermen of the Baltic Sea face a constant threat,
22:57that the dangerous bombs or the substances that escape from them
23:01fall into their nets.
23:03Bornholm is a Danish island located in the middle of the Baltic Sea,
23:07very close to the Baltic Sea,
23:09and it is the only island in the Baltic Sea
23:12where there are no chemical weapons.
23:15In the Baltic Sea, there are no chemical weapons,
23:19and it is the only Danish island located in the middle of the Baltic Sea,
23:23very close to one of the largest marine reservoirs.
23:26I belong to the fifth generation of Bornholm fishermen.
23:34This is a kit for ...
23:38If we take out a chemical bomb and there are liquid exhausts,
23:42we have this kit to clean.
23:48Here I have for different types.
23:52This is to clean the gas, it comes out like a liquid.
23:56We have three of these.
23:59And we also have anti-gas powder, like this.
24:06And we have this manual to know how to face the problem.
24:14Here we can see the areas where the weapons were thrown.
24:19The yellow one is the warning area,
24:23and the red is where we have to be extremely careful.
24:28Bornholm is here.
24:31This is the Baltic, Gotland in Sweden,
24:36and also in this area,
24:39and a red area of maximum caution.
24:52First of all, we want the fishing boats,
24:57the fishermen, do not suffer damage when removing these substances.
25:02Therefore, here, in the area of Denmark,
25:06we have an economic compensation system.
25:10In fact, we pay the fishermen the same amount
25:15that would be paid in the market for the sale of the fish.
25:19This is mustard gas in the middle of the fish.
25:23It is something that repeats year after year.
25:25Mustard gas goes from liquid to solid state.
25:30In Denmark, but also in other parts of the world,
25:33some cases have recently occurred
25:36in which the men who work with the chemical substances
25:40in the fishing boats are contaminated and get sick.
25:43We still find objects that contain both chemical agents and explosives.
25:54We always have a response team prepared 24 hours a day,
25:59365 days a year, to go to the high seas
26:01and help the fishermen who have removed chemical weapons.
26:05That is the job of our unit here in Bornholm.
26:13The last chemical alert we had was in March of this year,
26:16that is, a couple of months ago.
26:18It has been the only one this year.
26:23Compared to the 90s,
26:25in which we had between 50 and 100 alerts a year,
26:28the cases have declined.
26:40In recent years, important submarine construction projects
26:43have been initiated in the Baltic Sea,
26:45and with them the fear returned
26:47that contamination could cause some problem with chemical weapons.
26:59The Nord Stream project represents a new milestone.
27:02Its double gasoduct, more than 1,200 km long,
27:05crosses the Baltic Sea,
27:07joining the energy markets of Western Europe
27:10with Russia's huge natural gas reserves.
27:15We are here on the German coast.
27:17This is where the gasoduct leaves the Baltic Sea,
27:20and this is where the gas enters the European gas network.
27:24The issue of chemical weapons
27:26forced us to carry out detailed and exhaustive investigations.
27:30Once the alignment of the gasoduct had been defined,
27:33we had to carry out a detailed investigation
27:35of the chemical weapons.
27:37We carried out studies with a high-resolution side sweep sonar,
27:40studies with magnetometers and batimetric studies.
27:43And also, in the corridors of the facility,
27:46that is, where the gasoduct touched the seabed,
27:49we carried out work to determine
27:51whether the gasoduct touched the seabed,
27:53we carried out radiometric research
27:55and visual inspections.
27:57Thanks to these works,
27:59we identified more than 400 projectiles
28:01along the route of the pipeline,
28:03and to be able to have a safe corridor,
28:05we deactivated all the artifacts
28:07located less than 25 meters
28:09from the conducts of the Nord Stream gasoduct.
28:12Before starting the work,
28:14we cleaned the area of artifacts
28:16using detonation techniques
28:18in the Gulf of Finland and Russia.
28:20And in Germany,
28:22we took out all the artifacts
28:24that we found near our route.
28:27We also located a certain number of chemical weapons
28:30that we had to avoid.
28:35The Nord Stream gasoduct had to be built
28:38crossing dangerous areas,
28:40because until then,
28:42no European country had taken responsibility
28:44for the cleaning of the chemical weapons
28:46that were in the sea.
28:50The Americans,
28:52who fought two world wars
28:54far from their coasts,
28:56have discovered a dangerous surprise
28:58very close to their own home.
29:00Official sources from the United States
29:02have recognized
29:04that thousands of tons
29:06of ammunition,
29:08unused,
29:10were thrown by the army
29:12very close to their coasts.
29:20I was working
29:22on an investigation
29:24about the military ammunition
29:26of the local bases
29:28when I found photographs
29:30from the 40s, 50s and 60s
29:32of barrels and more barrels
29:34of mustard gas,
29:36lewisite and phosgene
29:38loaded in gavarras
29:40and dragged to sea.
29:42There are photos
29:44of how they threw
29:46mustard gas barrels
29:48The military archives
29:50were very scarce
29:52and incomplete,
29:54but to a certain extent
29:56they were conclusive
29:58that there were a certain number
30:00of dumpsites,
30:02dozens of them
30:04in 11 different states
30:06of the United States
30:08and presumably also
30:10on the coasts of other countries.
30:12That was a real revelation.
30:14There are three chemical weapons dumpsites
30:16facing the coasts of Virginia.
30:18One of them is right in front
30:20of the beach
30:22where all those people
30:24play volleyball and sunbathe.
30:26It is in very deep waters,
30:28presumably about 3,500 meters
30:30near the continental platform.
30:32That's where,
30:34according to the files,
30:36a dumpsite was created in the 40s.
30:38But no one knows exactly
30:40how far it is really.
30:42I would say that the reaction
30:44was a shock for the citizens
30:46and also for the US Congress.
30:48They had no idea
30:50what had been going on
30:52or that there was a potential danger
30:54facing their coasts.
30:56It was a real shock
30:58because there was no control
31:00over those deposits
31:02or any investigation
31:04that tried to confirm
31:06their location
31:08or that of other deposits
31:10that the army had admitted
31:13After Bull's investigations,
31:15Congress asked the army
31:17to make more efforts
31:19to locate the dumpsites.
31:21That work continues today
31:23in the same facilities
31:25where the United States
31:27manufactured its huge arsenal
31:29of chemical weapons.
31:31My work here
31:33is mainly about
31:35investigating when,
31:37why and where we started
31:39to dump chemical weapons.
31:41In the last five years,
31:43we have found almost all the information
31:45about chemical weapons
31:47and other conventional weapons
31:49in US waters.
31:53It is like a puzzle
31:55because in many cases,
31:57for example,
31:59you find a report
32:01that says that in Edgewood
32:03there were 4.2-inch
32:05white phosphorus projectiles
32:07and mustard gas projectiles.
32:09They are useless
32:11and it is impossible
32:13to recondition them.
32:15So you have that document,
32:17but all of a sudden
32:19you find another document
32:21from Norfolk Naval Base
32:23and you say,
32:25wait a minute,
32:27I know what they did with them.
32:29If we know the ship,
32:31we can find the logbook
32:33and hopefully,
32:35their captain noted
32:37that they were going to
32:39cross the coast.
32:41Every time you find
32:43something that fits,
32:45it is like,
32:47I can only compare it
32:49with a 10,000-piece puzzle.
32:51How long would it take
32:53to finish it?
32:55I don't know.
32:57I don't even want to find out.
32:59William Brankovich
33:01was the first to make
33:03a map of the chemical weapons
33:05Part of the problem
33:07at the end of the war
33:09was that we captured
33:11a large number of chemical weapons
33:13like the Russians
33:15and now we all share
33:17some of that heritage.
33:19Some of those chemical weapons
33:21were returned to the United States
33:23for their use,
33:25to be studied, evaluated
33:27and tested,
33:29but the rest was considered
33:31to be excessive
33:33and that went on
33:35until the 1960s.
33:37In the 1960s,
33:39people began to worry about
33:41is this really the way
33:43to get rid of chemical weapons?
33:45There were a series of
33:47chemical weapons
33:49planned at the end of the 60s
33:51in an operation called
33:53Operation Chase.
33:55The last one was under
33:57a huge controversy.
33:59By that time,
34:01there were potential problems.
34:03So the army
34:05requested in 1969
34:07to the National Academy of Sciences
34:09to study the problem
34:11and to investigate
34:13what was the best way
34:15to get rid of those weapons.
34:17The report
34:19basically said
34:21due to the fact that
34:23we don't know
34:25how this material evolves
34:27in the ocean floor,
34:29we recommend
34:31that you stop
34:33searching for chemical weapons.
34:35And from that moment on,
34:37the chemical weapons
34:39ended up in the ocean.
34:41I think it was in 1972
34:43when the Congress
34:45passed a law
34:47declaring it illegal.
34:49The Pentagon started
34:51a pilot program
34:53to study the environmental effects
34:55on the coasts of Hawaii,
34:57which were unconventional.
34:59I think we've all learned
35:01that the ocean
35:03is not a garbage dump.
35:05And if you dump something
35:07into the ocean,
35:09that's going to have consequences
35:11on the environment.
35:13Once you understand that,
35:15today we're studying
35:17what those effects are.
35:19We're looking at the fish
35:21and we're looking at the
35:23other ecosystems
35:25in order to determine
35:27whether the extraction
35:29is the right way to proceed.
35:31What is down there
35:33has been there 30, 40,
35:3550 or more years,
35:37in some cases even 80 years.
35:39The aquatic environment
35:41has worked a lot
35:43on those munitions
35:45and that work has been
35:47to slowly dissolve
35:49those agents.
35:51And when we're not
35:53talking about health,
35:55life and safety,
35:57leaving them where they are
35:59is still the correct solution.
36:01I'm not saying that we want
36:03to find other places
36:05to make a different decision.
36:07But when we're using
36:09a science-based approach,
36:11we really want to know
36:13the effects on the environment
36:15and understand
36:17the effects on the population
36:19and understand what happens
36:21when you extract the chemical weapons
36:23from the water.
36:25Is that really the safest
36:27and least dangerous way
36:29to handle the problem?
36:31The United States
36:33and Great Britain
36:35extended the official secret
36:37until 2017.
36:39And during the last 60 years,
36:41the scientific research
36:43on chemical weapons
36:45at sea and the dangers
36:47they pose
36:49Canada has made
36:51a great effort to eliminate
36:53the chemical weapons
36:55thrown after World War II.
36:57An expert in mining cleaning
36:59retired from the army
37:01gave his ecological concerns
37:03a business approach
37:05and has become a defender
37:07of the elimination of these weapons.
37:11Good afternoon, I'm Wendy Berthel
37:13and this is Main Street.
37:15Today we'll talk to Terry Long,
37:17a military engineer and expert
37:19in the elimination of explosives
37:21with more than 30 years of experience
37:23who has given the voice of alarm.
37:25We interviewed him
37:27in our show today on Main Street.
37:39I was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia
37:41and grew up here.
37:43Cape Breton is an island
37:45and there is a great lake, Lake Bedora.
37:47It is a beautiful island,
37:49virgin in some areas.
37:55When you see the lake, you can not imagine
37:57that there are five ammunition depots,
37:59one of them chemical weapons,
38:01thrown here after World War II.
38:03Johnstown was used
38:05as a chemical weapons factory,
38:07everything was secret,
38:09the neighbors did not know
38:11that these weapons were manufactured here.
38:13When they dismantled the factory,
38:15they just demolished the buildings
38:17and left them there.
38:19Nobody knew it was a chemical weapons factory
38:21so nobody ever suspected anything.
38:23When I started to investigate,
38:25I felt that I had to do something
38:27to protect our lake
38:29and when I investigated outside Nova Scotia
38:31I felt emotional again.
38:33There are many ammunition depots
38:35along the east coast and west coast of Canada
38:37and all over the world,
38:39from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan.
38:44The first thing I did
38:46was to request an audience
38:48in the Senate of Canada.
38:50I went with the Waikoba,
38:52one of the native nations,
38:54to be able to talk about the problem
38:56from the perspective of the native nations of Canada
38:58as guardians of Mother Earth.
39:00In that hearing,
39:02we talked about the different dumps
39:04and the contaminating agents.
39:06Two recommendations were established.
39:08The United Nations had to hold
39:10an international conference
39:12and it was necessary to create
39:14a group of affected people
39:16to help investigate the effects of the ammunition.
39:18As the conference was never held,
39:20I created an international dialogue
39:22about submarine ammunition
39:24that ended up becoming
39:26the international platform
39:28for the problem of ammunition.
39:36Hi Albert, how are you?
39:38Good, how are you?
39:40My name is Albert Marshall
39:42and I am from the Alce clan.
39:46I am from the territory of Migamagi.
39:50During the war,
39:52we saw those planes coming and going.
39:54As a matter of fact,
39:56they threw a lot of bombs
39:58in the lakes of Bedora.
40:00Terry Long informed me
40:02about the substances
40:04that those bombs carried
40:06because in many of our observations
40:10we used to see an unusual number
40:12of injuries
40:14in the aquatic fauna.
40:18Personally,
40:20I have had six,
40:22seven members of my family
40:24that have died
40:26from different types of cancer.
40:28And even as we speak now,
40:32one of my granddaughters
40:34is in the children's hospital
40:36of Halifax sick with cancer.
40:38The lakes of Bedora
40:40have always been the livelihood
40:42of our people.
40:44For seven generations
40:46we have lived here
40:48and we want to make sure
40:50that our future generations
40:52have the same privileges
40:54that we have today.
40:56Canadian authorities
40:58have never admitted
41:00that chemical weapons
41:02were thrown in the lakes of Bedora,
41:04but they have not denied it either.
41:06There is a great concern
41:08about the fact that
41:10the waste deposits
41:12cannot be cleaned
41:14without damaging
41:16the human being
41:18and the environment.
41:20But the Japanese administration,
41:22pressured by economic interests,
41:24decided to promote
41:26the first industrial program
41:28to clean the sea of chemical weapons.
41:30In this port,
41:32there are many factories
41:34that have a very important role
41:36in the industry
41:38and in the economy
41:40of our country.
41:42In November 2000,
41:44to improve the facilities
41:46of the port of Kanda,
41:48the seabed was drained
41:50and a new dam
41:52was built.
41:54This dam
41:56was built
41:58in order to remove
42:00the mines and bombs
42:02without exploiting
42:04and other dangerous
42:06objects.
42:08It was then
42:10when we discovered
42:12some suspicious substances.
42:14Our naval self-defense forces
42:16came to recover them
42:18and analyze them
42:20and discovered
42:22that they were chemical weapons.
42:25In the 1930s,
42:27Imperial Japan manufactured
42:29huge quantities of weapons
42:31containing mustard gas
42:33and leucine.
42:35In 1937,
42:37during the Manchuria invasion,
42:39they were used against the population,
42:41killing thousands of civilians.
42:49The poisonous gases
42:51were manufactured here,
42:54and the secret was that
42:56during World War II,
42:58the island disappeared
43:00from the Japanese maps.
43:02Today the island is known
43:04as the rabbit island.
43:08In the spring of 1946,
43:10in May or June,
43:12the US army arrived
43:14and they put in barrels
43:16the chemical agents
43:18they had found
43:20in the deposits.
43:24They loaded those barrels
43:26on two ships
43:30and sank them in the sea.
43:34We found them in several places,
43:36some even near Tokyo,
43:38Narasino, Chiba
43:40and in the bay of Kure,
43:42but they were more numerous
43:44near Kanda,
43:46where the military bases
43:48were formerly located.
43:54The bombs in the port of Kanda
43:56lie only 10 meters deep,
43:58and the Japanese government
44:00signed a contract with Kobelco,
44:02a steel giant,
44:04to find the weapons
44:06and destroy them.
44:18For many years
44:20they were processed in Kanda,
44:23we processed about 3,000,
44:25we processed them
44:27in a totally safe way,
44:29without accidents,
44:31and everyone
44:33congratulated us
44:35for our system.
44:39The Da Vinci system
44:41was designed to destroy
44:43chemical weapons.
44:45It consists of placing the bomb
44:47with an amount of powder
44:49in an airtight container
44:52During the explosion,
44:54the sudden increase
44:56in temperature
44:58and pressure
45:00destroys the molecular structure
45:02of the chemical agent.
45:22The technology of Kobelco
45:24has aroused the interest
45:26of other countries
45:28such as the United States,
45:30Belgium and France.
45:34The experience of Kanda
45:36and the innovative research
45:38with submarine robots
45:40show that chemical weapons
45:42can be safely eliminated
45:44for the environment
45:46and for humans
45:48up to a depth of 150 meters.
45:52One million tons
45:54of chemical weapons
45:56lie in the depths
45:58of the oceans.
46:00Some have been there
46:02for more than 70 years.
46:04Obviously, many countries
46:06do not want to take responsibility
46:08for the withdrawal and elimination
46:10of their own weapons
46:12and many other ammunition
46:14do not belong to any country.
46:16For example, who will pay
46:18for the chemical weapons
46:20that were thrown into the sea?
46:22The Organization for the Prohibition
46:24of Chemical Weapons,
46:26which won the Nobel Peace Prize
46:28in 2013, has demanded the end
46:30of the distribution of chemical weapons
46:32all over the world.
46:34Since 1992, 190 countries
46:36have signed the Convention
46:38that prohibits chemical weapons.
46:40However, the Organization
46:42for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
46:44has never publicly spoken
46:46about the ammunition
46:48that was thrown into the sea.
46:55Jacek!
46:56Terry!
46:57I'm glad to see you again.
46:59Likewise.
47:00How are you?
47:01Good, good.
47:02Last spring, Terry Long,
47:04with the support of the governments
47:06of the Baltic States,
47:08presented the problem in the AYA
47:10to ask the Organization
47:12to support the initiatives
47:14for its elimination.
47:17My name is Terry Patrick Long,
47:19and I am the President
47:21of the International Dialogue
47:23on Submarine Ammunition.
47:25We desperately need leadership,
47:27funding, and a great international
47:29effort to address the problem
47:31of the chemical weapons
47:33thrown into the sea.
47:35We think that the time
47:37has come to act,
47:39because the weapons are emerging,
47:41and it is necessary to act.
47:43We are truly convinced
47:45that the Member States
47:47of the Organization
47:49for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
47:51will finally listen to us.
47:53Frequently people ask us
47:55if the leaks of chemical agents
47:57are increasing or not,
47:59or if the environment
48:01is suffering damage,
48:03and we cannot answer
48:05with the degree of certainty
48:07that we would like.
48:09The international community
48:11made a mistake by throwing
48:13chemical substances that
48:15cannot be touched without
48:17wearing protection,
48:19and cannot continue
48:21to be in our marine environment.
48:23It is urgent that scientists
48:25have total freedom
48:27to continue
48:29their research.
48:31The military secrets imposed
48:33by the Allies
48:35since the Potsdam Conference
48:37in 1945 must be raised.
48:39This is essential
48:41to correctly evaluate
48:43the risks that these weapons
48:45represent for humanity,
48:47the environment
48:49and the tropical chain.
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