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Brazil is sinking a defunct aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off its northeast coast, the Brazilian navy said, despite warnings from environmentalists that the rusting French-built 1960s-built ship would pollute the sea and the marine food chain.
The 32,000-tonne carrier has been floating offshore for three months since Turkey refused to enter it due to environmental hazards and the ship was towed back to Brazil.
The carrier was scuttled in a “planned and controlled sinking” late Friday, the navy said in a statement, which will “prevent logistical, operational, environmental and economic losses to the Brazilian state.”
The hull of the Sao Paulo ship was sunk in waters under Brazilian jurisdiction 350 kilometers from the coast where the sea is 5,000 meters deep, a location chosen to minimize the impact on fishermen and the ecosystem, the navy said.
Tons of asbestos now
Federal prosecutors and Greenpeace have called on the Brazilian government to stop the sinking, saying it is “toxic” because of hazardous materials, including nine tons of asbestos used in the panels.
“The sinking of the Sao Paulo aircraft carrier dumped tons of asbestos, mercury, lead and other toxic substances into the seabed,” Greenpeace said in a statement. It accused the Brazilian navy of neglecting the protection of the sea.
The Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier served the French navy for four decades as the Foch, which could carry 40 warplanes.
Defense expert and former congressional foreign policy staffer Pepe Rezende said the carrier was purchased by the Brazilian navy for just US$12 million in 1998 but required an $80 million refit that was never carried out.
After the carrier was decommissioned, a Turkish marine recycling company bought the hull for $10.5 million, but it had to be towed back across the Atlantic when Turkey banned entry to shipyards.
Banned from Brazilian ports
The Brazilian navy said it asked the company to repair the carrier at a Brazilian shipyard, but after an inspection showed the ship was taking on water and was at risk of sinking, the Navy banned the ship from entering Brazilian ports. Then decided to sink Sao Paulo in the high seas.
The company’s legal representative in Brazil, Zilan Costa e Silva, said that the operator’s disposal is the responsibility of the Brazilian state under the 1989 Basel Convention on the trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste.
Greenpeace said the sinking violated the Basel Convention, the London Convention on the prevention of marine pollution, and the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants.
“The Brazilian navy chose to destroy the environment and lose millions of dollars rather than allow a public inspection of the ship,” Greenpeace said, calling the sinking the “biggest chemical and waste treaty violation committed by a country.”
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