Two US fighter jets last week dropped four bombs onto the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, in a training exercise that went wrong, the US Navy has admitted.
The incident happened during a training exercise involving both US and Australian military personnel.
The two AV-8B Harrier jets launched from the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard each jettisoned an inert practice bomb and an unarmed laser-guided explosive bomb into the UNESCO World Heritage-listed marine park off the coast of Queensland state.
Australian Green Party Senator Larissa Waters described the dumping of bombs in such an environmentally sensitive area as “outrageous.”
“Have we gone completely mad?” she told US network ABC. “Is this how we look after our World Heritage area now? Letting a foreign power drop bombs on it?”
Commander William Marks of the US Seventh Fleet assured that “there is minimal environmental impact… It is a safe situation for the environment, for shipping, for navigation.”
The US Navy said it would be willing to recover the bombs from the seabed.
“If the [Great Barrier Reef] park service and the government agencies of Australia determine that they want those recovered, then we will coordinate with them on that recovery process,” said Seventh Fleet spokesman Lieutenant David Levy.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system, covering approximately 133,000 square miles, and is home to 400 types of coral and 1,500 species of fish.
