WWII WRECKS PACIFIC

Oil, chemicals and unexploded ordinances on board sunken World War II warships and merchant vessels pose a real and ever present marine pollution risk to the nations of the Pacific and East Asian Region.  Sea Australia (through Rean Monfils) was involved with an ongoing project of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), through its Pacific Ocean Pollution Prevention Programme (PACPOL) to highlight to the Pacific nations the extent of the risk posed by vessels lost in World War II. 

The SPREP project involved a risk assessment, intense data collection and the creation of a Geographic Information System (GIS) database, which detailed the type, tonnage and location of vessels lost across the Pacific during the War.  In 2003 SPREP commissioned Sea Australia to create the 'Regional Strategy to Address Marine Pollution from WWII Shipwrecks in the Pacific' interactive CD-ROM. At this time the total count of WWII vessels in the Pacific database was over 3,800 which equated to over 13 million tons of vessels, including over 330 tankers.

World War II vessels in the Asia/Pacific region

You are welcome to download and use these maps provided that "R. Monfils" copyright acknowledgement remains on the image or the following acknowledgement accompanies the image: (c) copyright R.Monfils "year".