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An estimated 200 million pounds of explosives have been dumped in the world’s oceans, according to researchers from Texas A&M University who presented their finding at the
International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions Conference in Puerto Rico at the end of Sept.

Oceanographers William Bryant and Niall Slowey said they guess there are about 31 million pounds of unexploded bombs in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of 16 states from New Jersey to Hawaii, Fox News reported.

The explosives include thousands of gallon-containers of mustard gas left over from World War II off the coast of New Jersey and seven, 81-square-mile dump sites off the Gulf coast.

After an extensive study of two of the dumpsites in the Gulf of Mexico, Bryant and Slowey called the amount of unexploded munitions “unbelievable,” Fox reported.

The dumping started in 1946, and was internationally accepted until the 1970s when it was banned by Congress and international treaty.

The question is, do the explosives pose any danger?

The risks are either that the bombs will somehow be detonated, or that they will contaminate the water by leaking from their containers.

The unexploded munitions in the Gulf in particular could threaten offshore drilling there, Bryant and Slowey said, as reported by Reuters in Sept.

The issue may be gathering urgency with plans by he Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to auction 38 million acres of oil and gas leases in the central gulf in March, according to Reuters.

“The hazards are known but generally ignored,” Reuters reported, referring to drilling in the vicinity of long-abandoned explosives. There have been a number of documented interrruptions in drilling to remove undetonated bombs.

“Is there an environmental risk? We don’t know, and that in itself is reason to worry,” Bryant told Fox. “We just don’t know much at all about these bombs, and it’s been 40 to 60 years that they’ve been down there.”

Recovering the bombs or detonating them in place would be a massive and effort that could be more dangerous than leaving them where they are.

The oceanographers presented their findings at the I

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