Went looking for a blue-ring, wasnt ready for what I found...

Several weeks ago I took my kids, 9 and 12 along with two other boys of the same age to swim in a mostly protected cove behind a limestone breakwater. The water there ranges from zero depth during very low tides to about 1.5m in a high tide. After several hours there one of the boys came back to shore and told me he had seen a blue-ring octopus around the rocks where they were swimming. The kids came back in and we left for the day.

Yesterday I suited up and went looking with camera in hand during high tide to see what I could find. Its worth mentioning that this is a very popular swim spot with kids during the summer months. I quickly found the usual scorpionfish and cone shells but couldnt locate a blue-ring. After looking for a half hour or so I spotted something in a meter of water or so and moved in to identify it. What a surprise! Totally unburied, probably from the storm surge we have had for the last several days was a relic from WWII and the Battle of Okinawa dead in the middle of this popular swimming area next to houses and apartments. Just goes to show you that you never really know what you will find... The shore shot is from when I poked my head up to locate the area for the ordinance disposal people but it also shows how close I was to shore and peoples houses.

Looks interesting, what a find! How large is it? At first I thought it was a bullet/cassing but since you mentioned calling the ordinance people for disposal, it must be larger?

Keith

I dont know what it goes to but it was about 8-10 inches long compared to an arm on the strobe. Somewhere around 2 inches through the base. What bothered me most is that if one is there there are probably more as it was in a sandy "basin" in the coral that the currents had turned up and more importantly there are large numbers of kids who routinely play in this area when the tide goes down.

This round isnt the case most likely but there was a diver here some years ago who had picked up a phosphorous round and put it in his BCD while continuing to dive. Apparently it was a crusted lump he thought would make a good paperweight. After leaving the water for a while the phosphorous iginited and destroyed his vest and some additional equipment. In January a 500lb bomb was discovered and destroyed less than a half mile from this same location in 20 feet of water.