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Navy explodes HILO -- U.S. Navy divers safely destroyed 37 pieces of ordnance in four detonations yesterday in waters several hundred yards north of the Hilo breakwater, near the Blond Reef surfing shoal.
ordnance found
off Big Isle
The still-live explosives
apparently were dumped
following World War IIBy Frankie Stapleton
Special to the Star-Bulletin
The number of World War II munitions located on the ocean bottom has grown to 220 and there may be more. The Navy's disposal operations are expected to last until Sept. 22.
The U.S. Coast Guard has established a safety zone 800 yards around the area of operations. Mariners, fishermen and recreational boaters are being alerted to avoid the area. The disposal operations are not expected to affect shipping lanes, according to the Coast Guard.
Andrew Ford of the state Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement said the Navy identified the ordnance detonated yesterday as 75mm artillery shells. Ford said the munitions discovered included aerial rockets "and I suspect there are other things out there."
Military and state officials could only speculate that the ordnance was dumped into the ocean during or immediately after World War II, Ford said, noting there were a number of military training sites on the Big Island during the war.
"Nobody was environmentally conscientious back then and who would have imagined then that people would be diving out there," Ford added.
Michael Brandon, owner of Aquatic Perceptions dive and kayak shop, said he and a friend discovered the ordnance while on a recreational dive in June and extracted a couple of the rounds. "When we got them to shore, we realized their powder was dry," Brandon said.
"We turned it in because there was so much of it and it was hot, it was live. We felt it was our duty," he said, adding there was "much, much more" than the 35 rounds the Navy initially said was there. He said he saw big railroad wheels among the encrusted debris which is located at depths from 40 to 80 feet in an area of at least 300 square yards.
Brandon took issue with the Navy's statement that there was no viable marine life that would be affected by detonations. He said there were colonies of coral, large schools of jack fish, lobster, even manta rays, but he acknowledged that deciding how to handle the artillery shells was "kind of a hard call."