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Why Wartime Wrecks Are Slicking Time Bombs
from New Scientist
The battle for Guadalcanal was one of the pivotal moments of the second world war. The Japanese occupied Guadalcanal, the largest of the Solomon Islands, in August 1942. When the Americans landed a few months later, the Japanese set out to reinforce their troops by sea. The struggle for naval supremacy that followed was confused and bloody, but by February 1943 the battle was over and the Japanese had evacuated their remaining troops.
The battle has a hidden legacy, however. Before the war, the stretch of water north of Guadalcanal was called Sealark Sound. Now it is known as Iron Bottom Sound, because of the number of wrecked ships there.
One of these is the 6800-tonne Japanese freighter Hirokawa Maru, lying stranded off what would otherwise be an idyllic, palm-fringed Pacific island beach. Every now and then the ship leaks oil, threatening coral reefs, marine life and subsistence fishing.
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