UEMS / Ammunition Depot event in Wellington, Wellington area, New Zealand on Sat 15th July 2023

An unexploded fuze mechanism discovered off Oriental Bay by volunteer divers who were cleaning up Wellington Harbour is the third potentially live piece of discarded military ammunition found in the capital’s waters. Rob Wilson, founder and president of Ghost Diving NZ, previously found two unexploded artillery shells at Shelly Bay. But the small brassy object – which Wilson initially thought could make a good display on a mantelpiece – turned out to be a fuze mechanism which was more dangerous, he said. The volunteer cleaning sessions usually unearthed an array of items from the seabed, including escooters, toilets, tyres, and fishing nets but unexploded ammunition was “not the kind of thing that’s common”, Wilson said. Andrew Stewart, Ghost Diving committee member, said he immediately felt concerned when he saw the fuze in the bag which volunteers had collected. The group called the Defence Force explosive ordnance disposal team to deal with it. “It’s quite amazing we’ve had to do that three times,” Wilson said. “We’re building up a database of things not to touch.” It also included escooter batteries with posed a safety risk. But “thankfully” no escooters were found in last Saturday’s cleaning efforts of the harbour. Since 2019, they had picked up 117. Last year, 6 tonnes of rubbish was collected from beneath the waterfront. Stewart dreaded the day they would have to haul an ebike from the water. Forty volunteers joined the clean-up efforts on Saturday July 8, including a crew from Aotearoa Dive in Rotorua. The group collected 750 kilograms of rubbish – including an aircraft tyre which were commonly used as buffers on the side of boats, Wilson said and were not unusual to find during their clean-up days. Scaffolding from buildings had also made its way to the bottom of the harbour. “We’d rather people don’t dump things in the sea,” Stewart said. Items like unexploded ordnance were unstable and “really unpredictable” but could easily be picked up by someone as a souvenir. With a crowd of people around the bag of items including other objects made of metal and glass, it “would’ve been a horror story” had it exploded then, he said. The Defence Force’s explosive ordnance disposal team set up a space at Red Rocks on Sunday to dispose the fuze, a Defence Force spokesperson said. It was potentially live and was therefore disposed on the beach, they said. “Unexploded ordnance come from a range of sources. While many items of this nature are found to be inert, it is critically important to assume they are dangerous until proven otherwise by experts. “If you discover an item that you believe may be dangerous, remain clear of the item and contact NZ Police as soon as possible.” Ghost Diving would be organising another clean-up day next month but a date was yet to be confirmed. “We’ve got amazing creatures in the harbour,” Wilson said, including seahorses and eagle ray. “It’s worth looking after.”