What is going on here is typical ship salvage. Kinda cool to watch, but tragic that it happens in the first place.

As for all those cars, even though they had been sitting underwater all that time, there can still be items that could be cleaned up and used once again, but rightfully so, the manufacturers want none of these to turn up for liability concerns. Any cargo that spills from the sections will have to be cleaned up as well; a pile of cars filled with oil and other contaminants is a hazard to the underwater environment. It would be a simple matter to dredge all that up after the sections are raised. If you were BMW or Volvo, would you want the bad press of a couple thousand of your cars in a heap at the bottom of the Channel?

Think of it this way - The cars will be ground up and made into useful items once again. The car you are driving now has steel made from recycled autos and other items. Today's methods of recycling scrap has made high quality steel and other metals available at a much lesser toll on the environment. It's a fascinating process if you think about it.

 

It was the NPR story that turned me on to this again this morning. They said that some photographers had gotten pictures of the pieces coming up with the cars still on board but that the manufacturers had objected strongly to this. I guess BMW/Volvo/etc. don't want us to consider the sight of waterlogged 7-series. Anyhow, I couldn't find those pics anywhere online (I'll be someone can though).

The good news was that no people were injured in this whole fiasco (incl the original wreck). So, it's just a lot of property and a heap of marine engineering know-how.

 

Xanthus, I thought about you fist thing when I saw this thread had been resurrected!!