"Save a Tourist - Find a Bomb" is the New Slogan for New Jersey Beaches

In Surf City, New Jersey shop owners are selling t- shirts that have says like, "Save a Tourist - Find a Bomb", "Surf City's Da Bomb" and "I got Bomb on L.B.I.", instead of shovel and buckets for kids. This is all due to the fact that over 1,111 pieces of World War I munitions were found on the Surf City Beach.

The first piece of munitions was found on March 5 by a local resident medal detecting. The Army Corp of Engineers aided in the clean-up which has cost 2.3 million to date and is expected to run even higher. There were 1`.4 miles of beach effected by this problem. The beaches have been closed since the March 5 incident and are scheduled to reopen by the Memorial Day Weekend. Even though the beaches will be reopened their will still be restrictions from digging more than 12 inches into the sand. The

George Follett, an explosives safety specialist for the Army Corps said, "We really don't expect anybody to find anything, but you don't know." He has been overseeing the removal of the devices. "If there's a lot of wave action, something might be uncovered." Keith Watson said that they do not expect that umbrella will be a problem, but children should be discouraged from digging too deep. Metal detecting has also been strictly prohibited.

The problem is thought to have arouse due to the $9 million beach renovation which was performed by the Army Corps of Engineers this past fall. In an attempt to widen the beaches the Corps dredged up 500,000 cubic yards of sand from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It is thought that the munitions most likely were dumped off the side of a ship over 90 years ago and then transferred to the beach during the renovation process.

Keith Watson said, "Beaches are a dynamic thing. We're not leaving. We'll follow it through to the end." It is expected that a similar effort will be needed in the fall/ winter of this year as the sand erosion may expose more munitions.

Shop owners like Joe Muzzillo, who owns the Exit 63 WearHouse says he expects for this summer sales to be weak and has loaded up on t- shirts instead of sand toys.

Mr. Muzzillo said, "Even if the beach is open, I think it's going to suffer. If kids can't dig and do the normal things kids do, it could be kind of traumatic, especially when they hear the explanation for why. Is a kid ever going to want to dig in the sand again?"

(Jill P. Capuzzo, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/nyregion/15sand.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin)