Fishermen Pull Chemical Weapons From the Atlantic, Exposing a Legacy Dump Crisis
Multiple burn injuries from World War II-era munitions reveal that thousands of dump sites remain unmapped and unregulated, creating liability for the fishing industry and testing new detection tech.
Commercial fishing crews off New Jersey have suffered severe chemical burns after inadvertently recovering World War II and Cold War-era munitions in their nets, with CDC reporting three separate incidents between 2016 and 2023 involving sulfur mustard exposure. In the most recent case from October 2023, clam dredgers brought contaminated munitions aboard, leading to hospitalization and the destruction of thousands of pounds of seafood.
The incidents follow a decades-old disposal practice. According to Department of Defense records, at least 17,000 tons of chemical warfare munitions were dumped in U.S. Atlantic coastal waters between 1946 and 1970. Global figures are far higher: the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies estimates information exists for only 40–50% of worldwide dump sites, with the worldwide total exceeding 1.6 million tons.
The Operational Risk
In the August 2016 incident off Atlantic City, a fishing crew member who threw a ruptured munition overboard experienced second-degree burns requiring hospitalization, skin grafting, and physical therapy. The munition had been dredged from a charted disposal zone—an area that carries no fishing restrictions despite its designation. According to CDC analysis, sea-disposed chemical weapon locations are largely unknown and potentially far from their originally documented sites due to ocean drift, storms, and offshore construction.
“Because of ocean drift, storms, and offshore industries, sea-disposed CWMs locations are largely unknown and potentially far from their originally documented dump site.”
— CDC, Notes from the Field, February 2026
The fishing industry faces asymmetric risk exposure. Mustard gas, the most common agent in underwater dumps, is insoluble in water and forms viscous lumps that persist for decades. OSPAR Commission research indicates mustard gas remains on the seabed for extended periods, while nerve agents hydrolyze rapidly. This creates a detection problem: fishermen encounter hazardous materials with no advance warning in areas supposedly mapped decades ago.
The Detection Gap
Current underwater munitions detection relies on acoustic sensors and magnetometers, but these systems identify objects, not chemical contents. Research published in Analytica Chimica Acta notes that geophysical measurements risk high rates of false positives and cannot distinguish between conventional ordnance and chemical weapons.
Emerging chemical detection technologies show promise but remain in early deployment. Ion mobility spectrometry systems developed by Sandia National Laboratories can identify explosive molecules underwater by extracting and concentrating samples on polymer fibers, then analyzing chemical signatures. However, these systems currently function only outside water and require diver operation.
The underwater robotics market, valued at approximately $5.9 billion in 2026 according to Research Nester, is growing at 14.3% CAGR through 2035, driven partly by demand for hazardous materials inspection. Autonomous underwater vehicles equipped with chemical sensors could theoretically survey known dump sites, but no such large-scale remediation program exists.
The Liability Question
Responsibility for legacy munitions remains unresolved. U.S. law does not require active recovery or destruction of underwater chemical weapons, which are considered abandoned and degraded. A 2017 Department of Defense report to Congress concluded that known sea-disposal sites “do not pose an unacceptable risk to ecological, environmental, or human health or to maritime safety,” and recommended leaving munitions in place.
The 1972 London Convention banned ocean dumping of chemical weapons, but did not address legacy sites. Current U.S. maritime regulations provide guidance for fishermen who encounter munitions but establish no proactive monitoring system. The burden falls on vessel operators to identify, report, and manage contamination incidents, which can involve the Coast Guard, FDA, state agencies, and seafood processors in complex, time-consuming responses.
The fishing industry bears the operational cost. When contamination occurs, entire catches must be destroyed, vessels require decontamination, and crew face injury without clear compensation mechanisms. According to CDC guidance, five incidents in the past 20 years resulted in unintentional injuries and contamination, but this likely understates the true incidence given reporting gaps.
Global Scope
The Atlantic incidents represent a fraction of worldwide exposure. The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission reports 40,000 tons of chemical munitions in the Baltic Sea alone, with sulfur mustard the most abundant agent. Italian fishermen suffered 232 mustard-related injuries and five deaths between 1946 and 1997 in Adriatic waters, according to nonproliferation research.
| Region | Estimated Volume | Primary Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Baltic Sea | 40,000 tons | Sulfur mustard |
| U.S. Atlantic | 17,000+ tons | Mustard/Lewisite |
| Beaufort’s Dyke (UK) | 1 million+ tons | Mixed conventional/chemical |
| Skagerrak (Norway) | 168,000 tons | German captured stocks |
Geopolitical responsibility remains contested. The UK, US, and Russia dumped captured German munitions after World War II, but historical records are incomplete. Russia admitted in 1995 that at least 160,000 tons of chemical weapons may be on the seabed of Russian seas, according to James Martin Center documentation, yet has provided minimal data to international agencies.
What to Watch
- Detection technology: Commercial deployment of underwater chemical sensors could create a $200+ million market for munitions site characterization, but requires integration with autonomous platforms.
- Insurance exposure: Fishing operations in documented dump zones face unquantified liability as contamination incidents establish precedent for catch destruction and crew injury claims.
- Offshore development: Wind farm construction, cable laying, and pipeline projects in coastal waters increasingly encounter munitions, requiring costly survey work and route modifications.
- Regulatory pressure: The February 2026 CDC report signals growing federal attention to the issue, potentially driving new maritime safety requirements or industry-specific protocols.
The Department of Defense maintains documentation on 47 individual dump sites along U.S. coasts, but experts estimate 1,000 or more sites exist. As offshore economic activity intensifies—including aquaculture, renewable energy, and deep-sea mining—encounter rates will increase. The fishing industry operates as an inadvertent early warning system for a problem that has no current solution beyond reactive incident response.
NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Programme and Germany’s GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre conduct ongoing research into corrosion rates and ecological impacts, but large-scale remediation remains technically and financially prohibitive. The prevailing strategy—leave munitions undisturbed—works only if locations are accurately known and enforced. The New Jersey incidents demonstrate that decades-old disposal records provide insufficient protection for modern maritime commerce.