Yo! Oleg! an upgrade! Brazil Wants to Abandon a 34,000-Ton Ship at Sea.

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Brazil Wants to Abandon a 34,000-Ton Ship at Sea. It Would be an
Environmental Disaster
869
Ciara Nugent
Tue, January 31, 2023 at 1:14 PM PST·7 min read

Brazilian aircraft carrier Sao Paulo (A12) seen in Rio de Janeiro on
Aug. 11, 2016. Credit - Benoit Tessier—Reuters

Somewhere in the South Atlantic ocean right now, a 34,000-ton, 870-ft.
aircraft carrier is floating aimlessly on the waves. The vessel, caught
in an international dispute over its toxic contents, is about to become
one of the biggest pieces of trash in the ocean.

The São Paulo, the only aircraft carrier in the Brazilian navy’s fleet,
has been stuck in limbo for five months. Brazil sold the 60-year-old
vessel for scrap to a Turkish shipyard in 2021, and in August 2022, it
set off for Turkey from a naval base in Rio de Janeiro. But while it was
on the move, Turkey rescinded its permission to enter, saying Brazil
hadn’t been able to prove that the São Paulo was free of asbestos—a
toxic mineral used in the construction of many 20th century ships. So,
the boat turned around.

Brazil doesn’t want it back, though. In September, a port on the coast
of Pernambuco state blocked the ship from docking. The port argued there
was too big a risk that the ship would be abandoned, leaving port
authorities to pick up the tab for moving it and dealing with the
asbestos. That left the São Paulo circling off the Brazilian coast,
until Jan. 20, when Brazil’s navy announced that it had pushed the ship
out to international waters, where it remains. The navy says it had to
do so because the aging ship, which incurred damage to its hull during
its odyssey, could have run aground or sank on the Brazilian coast,
threatening other boats and coastal wildlife.

The navy’s solution is to abandon the São Paulo at sea. On Saturday,
military sources told Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo newspaper that the
navy planned to use explosive to sink the vessel on Wednesday, seeing it
as the only way to put an end to its controversial saga.

But on Tuesday night, responding to concerns from a federal
environmental agency, Brazil’s public prosecutor filed a civil case
against the navy, asking a federal court to order an immediate halt to
any plans to detonate the ship.

The court’s decision will determine whether or not the São Paulo becomes
an extreme case of vessel abandonment—a problem that plagues marine
conservationists and coastal communities around the world. Ocean
watchdogs say sinking a boat as big and old as the São Paulo would be an
environmental disaster; as well as the asbestos, the ship contains
hundreds of metric tons of other toxic substances in its electrical
wiring, paints, and fuel stores, according to the Basel Action Network
(BAN), an NGO.

Abandoning it at sea would constitute “gross negligence” and violate
three separate international environmental conventions, says Jim
Puckett, BAN’s executive director. “We’re talking about a ship
containing both hazardous materials and valuable materials—it’s supposed
to be brought into the territory of Brazil and managed in an
environmentally sound way,” Puckett says. “You can’t just sink it.”

Approached for comment, the Brazilian navy directed TIME to its official
announcements, which say only that the navy will not allow the São Paulo
to return to Brazil.

Turkey's various opposition political parties, labour unions, and
non-governmental organisations held a mass rally against the dismantle
of Brazilian aircraft carrier Nae Sao Paulo in Aliaga district in Izmir,
Turkey, on Aug. 4, 2022.<span class="copyright">Berkcan
Zengin—GocherImagery/Reuters</span>
Turkey's various opposition political parties, labour unions, and
non-governmental organisations held a mass rally against the dismantle
of Brazilian aircraft carrier Nae Sao Paulo in Aliaga district in Izmir,
Turkey, on Aug. 4, 2022.Berkcan Zengin—GocherImagery/Reuters
More
It’s not uncommon for boats to be abandoned. Because they are expensive
to maintain and to dispose of properly, tens of thousands of unwanted
vessels—normally much smaller than an aircraft carrier—are left in
harbors, on beaches, or at sea every year. In Nigeria, thousands of
wrecked cargo ships and commercial fishing vessels litter the coast,
destroying beach ecosystems and making waterways dangerous to pass for
local communities. In Venice, around 2,000 abandoned small recreational
boats are clogging up a local wetland. In the U.S., the Government
Accountability Office estimates that from 2013 to 2016, there were 5,600
boats abandoned in U.S. waters—likely a very lowball estimate, according
to Nancy Wallace, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s marine debris program.

The problem is, what’s left onboard those boats doesn’t stay onboard.
“Anytime there’s a vessel that’s left at sea, the first thing to think
about is toxic chemicals, which can be very impactful to wildlife,”
Wallace says. Abandoned boats of any size can cause oil spills and leach
paint chemicals and microplastics into the water, while debris such as
nets can come loose, trapping fish.

Older vessels can also contain so-called PCBs, a group of highly
carcinogenic chemicals that were often used in electrical wiring before
the 1970s and were globally banned under the 2001 Stockholm convention.
When dumped in the ocean, scientists say PCBs work their way up the
marine food chain, affecting everything from small crustaceans to orcas.
BAN estimates that the São Paulo, which was built in France in the
1960s, contains around 300 metric tons of PCBs, based on analysis of its
sister ship, the Clemencau. The NGO says leaving the vessel at sea would
violate both the Stockholm convention and the 1996 London Protocol.

In Brazil, the face of the ship abandonment problem is Guanabara Bay in
Rio de Janeiro state, where some 200 vessels, including cargo ships and
oil tankers, have been left to rot by owners caught up in financial or
legal troubles. Local NGOs say the resulting oil and chemical pollution
has dramatically reduced native mangrove, tortoise, and dolphin
populations, and has hurt the livelihoods of local fishermen. The bay
made national headlines in November, when a storm caused a 660-ft. cargo
ship to come loose from its moorings and crash into the
Rio-Niteroi—Latin America’s longest over-water bridge.

Remains of abandoned ships are seen on the shores of the Guanabara Bay
in Niteroi, Brazil, on Dec. 28, 2022.<span class="copyright">Pilar
Olivares—Reuters</span>
Remains of abandoned ships are seen on the shores of the Guanabara Bay
in Niteroi, Brazil, on Dec. 28, 2022.Pilar Olivares—Reuters
Removing such vessels is a major headache for governments. Hauling them
out can cost anywhere from $8,000 (the per-boat cost for 14 recreational
boats recently lifted out of the water in South Carolina) to $1.8
million (the cost for removing an 83-ft. fishing boat in Saipan in 2021,
which had been degrading a nearby coral reef in the Northern Mariana
Islands for six years after a 2015 storm left it too damaged for its
owners to repair.)

But, thankfully, it is highly unusual for a ship as large as the São
Paulo to be deliberately abandoned. That’s because large boats like
cruise ships, container ships, and aircraft carriers contain vast
amounts of high-quality valuable metals, especially steel, which can be
salvaged and resold. (Recycling is also beneficial for the environment,
since manufacturing new steel is extremely carbon-intensive.)

Puckett, from BAN, says the idea of sinking the São Paulo doesn’t make
financial sense for Brazil. “It’s got millions of dollars worth of steel
to be recycled, which far outweighs the cost of managing those hazardous
materials,” he says. “I’ve never seen such a valuable ship being
deliberately sunk.”

BAN is calling on Brazil’s new leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva to step in. To comply with international treaties, including the
Basel Convention restricting the export of toxic waste, Puckett says the
navy must tow the São Paulo into a naval base, repair the damage to the
hull, and then offer the recycling contract to new shipyards in Europe,
which can safely remove the asbestos before dismantling the ship.

The case brought by Brazil’s public prosecutor’s office opens a last
minute door to that happening. It asks the court to compel the navy to
carry out a technical assessment of all the options for disposing of the
ship, and find a way of doing so “”without risk to the environment and
public health.” That might just save the São Paulo from a toxic watery
grave.