US Government Blowing up Coral Reefs

[JT]

Well, isn't just lovely.

It would appear that, back in the 1990's, the US military was using pipe organ corals measuring tens of meters long for target practice off of Scarborough Reef. Many of the bombs never exploded and now pose hazards for local fishermen.

For those who don't know, Scarborough Reef is an interesting geopolitical reef that is closer to the Philippines than its parent country of mainland China and is located 15.1 degrees North by 117.5 degrees East. This area is a hot bed for blast fishing.

I need to spend some time on google later today and find more info about this.

 

[rgbmatt]

The US Navy was doing bombing practice in Hawaii until 1996 - the entire island of Kahoolawe was a target range. There are similar issues with unexploded ordnance.

The coral has grown back quite nicely, though.

 

[chrismo]

Leaving unexploded ordanances amungst reefs might be an excellent way to keep people from mucking with them.

 

[mark@mac]

I met a guy at MACNA last year who another attendee met on the plane... They began talking about coral reefs, etc. and wouldn't ya know, he was military, researching info on what to do about this same situation around Puerto Rico... He decided to attend and talked with several MACNA attendees to get input..

He got suggestions from transplanting/relocating, to simply detonating the munitions and allowing the reef to grow back on it's own... hhmmm.... Interesting we're hearing so much about "left over" still live, military munitions.

peace,

Mark