HONOLULU (KHON2) -- The Department of Defense has partnered with the University of Hawaii's Applied Research Laboratory to work on new technology to locate and map bombs, bullets and more that were disposed of after World War II.
The university has worked to locate thousands of munitions over the last 15 years to prevent them from corroding on the ocean floor and risking the health of those who participate in ocean activities.
UH researchers have discovered more than 100,000 underwater munitions at popular beach locations such as Kaneohe Bay and Lanikai Beach.
Around the end of World War II, there were a lot of excess, obsolete and damaged bombs here in Hawaiʻi. And the way we disposed of them was dumping them in the ocean. So we’re trying to find the things that were dumped in the ocean decades ago.
Margo Edwards, director of ARL at UH
The ARL has developed and is testing new technologies using advanced ocean platforms and sensor payloads in an attempt to detect munitions from an uncrewed surface vessel at Sand Island.
"We have some ocean sensors that are connected with our Mini Sondes or MiSos that are collecting ocean temperature, ocean pressure, sound speed and supply voltage," ARL research engineer Joshua Baghdady said.
The project also draws help from UH and high school students, which UH said will train the next generation to complete this type of work.
UH has established a two-year partnership with the DOD to allow other researchers to test these new technologies.
If beachgoers happen to find munitions, they should follow the Army's 3Rs Program: recognize, retreat and report.
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Munitions are dangerous and should not be touched, moved or disturbed. The public should carefully leave the area and call 911 to report the munition and where it is located.