Harvest of Bombs

Police in the Solomon Islands are reminding residents that digging-up and selling WWII era ordinance to scrap metal dealers is dangerous. You would think that this would be a no-brainer, but the in a country that has been dubbed a "failed state" and "environmental tragedy", finding someway to feed your family is worth some risk.

The Battle of Guadalcanal and other fights in the Pacific archipelago left these islands with crops of unexploded ordinance (UXO) to be pulled from the ground along side cocoa and copra. Scuba diving tourists also help the economy of the archipelago, mostly to view the wrecks of Iron Bottom Sound, which had seem sever ships sunk as early as WWI.