In the summer of 2019, divers from the Royal Canadian Navy undertook a salvage operation to retrieve unexploded explosives from the WWII shipwrecks off the coast of Bell Island.NU.nl, 'Canadese marine haalt WO II-explosieven uit wrakken voor kust', August 5, 2019. Accessed August 20, 2022. (Dutch) They then detonated the bombs on the Newfoundland mainland in a controlled manner.CBC News, 'Bell Island bombs recovered from shipwrecks', 2019. Accessed 20 August 2022. In 2021, the Navy completed the work by also clearing the firearms on board the ships as well as ammunition fired from the coastal battery.Government of Canada, National Defence, "Newfoundland shipwrecks cleared of explosives", November 5, 2021. Accessed on October 19, 2022. As two years earlier, the bombs were defused on land so as not to damage marine life and the touristic and historically important wrecks. Radio-Canada, ICI Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador, "Opération pour retirer des munitions d'épaves de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale à T.-N.-L.", July 25, 2021. Accessed on October 19, 2022.
