Agence France-Presse,
Ottawa (AFP): Environmentalists have lamented plans to sink a Canadian destroyer during a military training exercise in the Pacific next month, saying the navy is “treating the ocean like a garbage dump.”
The decommissioned HMCS Huron will be struck by a barrage of Canadian and US missiles, aircraft machine guns, naval cannons and torpedoes until it sinks two kilometers (1.2 miles) to the ocean floor off the west coast of Vancouver Island, the navy said.
Environment Canada has approved the disposal plan.
But activist Jennifer Lash of Living Oceans, backed by opposition New Democratic Party MP Nathan Cullen and Green Party leader Elizabeth May, told AFP the navy is “treating the ocean like a garbage dump.”
“I think they assume that because it's deep sea, beyond the continental shelf, there's nothing down there that could be affected. But there's an important ecosystem down there and we shouldn't be dumping ships there.”
“People don't just drive their car off a cliff into the lake when they're done with it,” Cullen told the Ottawa Citizen.
The Iroquois-class destroyer, stripped down to 1,118 metric tonnes of raw steel and longer than a football field, is believed to be the first Canadian battleship to be sunk in a live-fire exercise, a navy spokeswoman said.
“The decision to sink the Huron was made after an extensive analysis of disposal options such as creating an artificial reef or selling it as scrap metal,” Lieutenant Carole Brown told AFP.
“It was decided that this exercise would give our navy valuable training and test new weapons systems.”
The attack will take place in clear weather to allow positioning of the Huron outside any commercial fishery, and all petroleum-based products such as oil and lubricants have been removed, according to Environment Canada.
As well, missiles and torpedoes that hit the Huron will contain no radioactive material, leaving only trace amounts of lead on the ocean bottom.
“We're good environmental stewards,” said Lieutenant Brown. “It will be sunk in waters 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) deep and well clear of known marine mammals and fishing grounds.”
The Huron, commissioned in 1972, served on blockade patrols during the 1991 Gulf War, intercepted illegal Chinese immigrants in 1999 and was decommissioned in 2005 to furnish spare parts for three other Canadian destroyers.
The date of its demise has not yet been announced.
While this live-fire sinking may be a first in Canada, US and Canadian warships did take part in a similar exercise last year off the coast of Hawaii, submerging a retired American warship, the USS O'Brien.
