Thousands of tons of war wreckage sank into the fabled lagoons of the South Pacific islands during the naval and air battles of World War II. But instead of devastating the region’s underwater ecology, the detritus of human conflict turned into artificial reefs, upon which fantastic mini-ecosystems took shape. NATURE gives viewers a new perspective on wildlife in the South Pacific when its cameras board the WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS.

The Solomon Islands and the waters that surround them constitute an enormous battlefield, where 60 years ago U.S. Navy and Marine forces began a monumental assault that eventually would drive Japanese forces northward, back toward their homeland. In addition to its enormous human toll, the fighting left countless ships and aircraft, including fuel and noxious cargo, on the beds of the formerly pristine shallow waters. Surprisingly, however, this intrusion into paradise did not repel wildlife from those waters. Instead, it attracted it.

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Online content for WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS was originally posted May 2003.