A German fishing vessel that sank during World War II has been leaking pollutants that are changing the surrounding marine environment in the North Sea, according to a new study.
The 80-year-old shipwreck is the V-1302 John Mahn, a fishing trawler that was used as a German patrol boat in WWII. The British Royal Air Force bombed the vessel in 1942 and the ship capsized off the Belgian coast.
The new study, published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, found toxic pollutants such as arsenic and explosive compounds in sediment samples gathered from the ocean floor near the wreck. Corroding microbes were also present in samples taken from the ship's hull.
Even after eight decades, those chemicals and microbes are affecting the "surrounding sediment chemistry and microbial ecology," the researchers wrote in the study. The results hint at the long-term environmental impacts of shipwrecks in the North Sea and around the world.
