WW2 Magnet Fishing

[Aguila Blanca]

https://youtu.be/0KawAOjL7HI

A couple of Dutchmen found some seriously cool stuff in a pond. I wonder if their laws allow them to keep any of it -- like the MG-15, for example. For having been under water for over 70 years, some of the stuff is in surprisingly good condition. I wonder if the pond is stagnant, and doesn't have a lot of oxygen in the water.

[T. O'Heir]

Stagnant just means the water doesn't flow. There's very little oxygen in really deep water. That water, that isn't remotely deep, probably had its O2 used up dissolving plants. It'd have more added by rain fall though. There doesn't appear to be the organisms that feed on organic materials.
Something isn't right about that video. There's not a spec of rust or any kind of corrosion on any of that stuff. Probably buried deep in the mud. Wood is usually the first thing that gets eaten followed by rust forming. That wouldn't happen in O2 deprived mud.
Magnets won't pick up stuff like cartridges.
Those guys are playing with fire when they pull up a Mills bomb and land mines that have been there for 70 plus years too. And no they wouldn't be allowed to keep any firearm.
Belgian and French farmers are forever finding live ordnance, gas shells included, from W.W. I. So much that both countries have active EOD types who do nothing but collect and destroy the stuff.

[Double Naught Spy]

As I am sure y'all have seen on TV, there are guys who harvest sunken old harvest logs that were taken over 100 years ago, such as logging Lake Superior. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...=.f4d0b000308b

So you certainly can have preservation via submersion with the right environment.

[buck460XVR]

Originally Posted by Double Naught Spy

As I am sure y'all have seen on TV, there are guys who harvest sunken old harvest logs that were taken over 100 years ago, such as logging Lake Superior. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...=.f4d0b000308b

So you certainly can have preservation via submersion with the right environment.

The reason logs and ships are so well preserved in the Great lakes(especially Lake Superior) is the cold water and oxygen deficient depth. Thus wood does not rot, but "season" as the sugars(starch) is leached outta the wood. Around here we have several large reservoirs that were created in the 30s. Most of these were created by building a dam and backing water up over wooded areas. To this day, most of those lakes are mine fields of stumps below the water. Some of these stumps are 30 feet high. Most of the wood above the water line was cut by folks when the lakes were frozen over, either for lumber or firewood. Much to the dismay of those folks who have since lost their lower unit, before they realized what was below the water line.

[Rob228]

I get the impression that video was a marketing gimmick for the magnet company https://magnetarvismagneet.nl/

My two thoughts: The MG looked like it came out of a museum showroom, not the mud in the bottom of a pond.

Playing with UXO and magnets does not usually end well.

[Double Naught Spy]

The reason logs and ships are so well preserved in the Great lakes(especially Lake Superior) is the cold water and oxygen deficient depth.

While I appreciate your clarification on the Great Lakes, you sort of missed the point which was that submerged wood survival isn't all that uncommon. We know why it happens as T.O'Hier noted. The same logging practice is done in the south. The cold really doesn't have at much to do with it as you might think...
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...713-story.html

This is the same thing going on with the WWII wood.