HONOLULU -- The Assistant Secretary of the Army on Wednesday discussed what will be done to address the problem of old munitions dumped in the ocean off Oahu.

At the end of World War II, the U.S. military dumped munitions in several locations off Oahu. One site is in shallow water off Waianae, another site is in deep water south of Pearl Harbor.

Assistant Secretary of the Army for Environment Tad Davis on Wednesday spoke about the issue. There is a conference on the problem in Waikiki.

There are so many munitions dumped in the world's oceans that sophisticated high-technology industries have developed to deal with it.

There are conventional weapons dumped off the Waianae Coast. The Army will try to determine just how dangerous they are.

"But we also have a follow-on effort that will look at a demonstration technology using robotics to go in and actually go in and remove those munitions in the 40- to 100-foot range because those are munitions somebody could come into contact through fishing or through scuba diving activities," Davis said.

A University of Hawaii submersible will head into the deep water off Pearl Harbor next week, where the Army said chemical weapons were dumped.

"If we find munitions we're going to scoop up the sediment around it takes that back up to be analyzed. We're going to collect water samples and collect biota to do analyses of what' inside of them," research scientist Margo Edwards said.

Right now, officials are working to assess, inspect and monitor the munitions. Any disposal or removal would come much later, they said.