By 1970, the US had dumped approximately 17,000 tons of unused chemical weapons from World War I and II on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean – and this disposal decision is affecting commercial fishing operations.
In an article published this week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, health officials from New Jersey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported at least three incidents of hazardous chemical warfare materials (CWM) being dredged by commercial fishing crews off the coast of New Jersey between 2016 and 2023.
In three incidents at least six crew members were exposed to mustard agent, causing blistering chemical burns on the skin and mucous membranes. (An example of this type of burn can be seen here, but be careful, the image is graphic.) One crew member required overnight treatment in the emergency department for respiratory distress and second-degree blistering burns. Another was burned so badly that he was hospitalized in a burn center and required skin grafting and physical therapy.
Health officials write, “Recovered CWM pose a risk to workers and food safety. Due to ocean currents, storms, and offshore industries, CWM locations placed in the ocean are largely unknown and potentially far from their originally documented dump sites.”
This is not the first such report in MMWR. In 2013, federal health officials reported three other incidents in the mid-Atlantic. The report said that clam fishermen in Delaware Bay “told investigators that they regularly recovered shells that often had a ‘garlic-like odor,’ a possible indication of the presence of a chemical agent.”
One of the three newly reported incidents occurred in 2016 off the coast of Atlantic City when a crew was dredging for clams. An ammunition load was brought to the ship on a conveyor belt. A crew member saw it and threw it overboard, but it was that member who later suffered burns to his hand and required skin grafting. In addition to health harms, delays in reporting the incident allowed munitions as well as stranded clams to go into production. This led to the recall of 192 cases of clam chowder and the destruction of 704 cases of clams.
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