HONOLULU -- A University of Hawaii report says military munitions dumped off Oahu after World War II do not seem to pose a major threat to the environment.

But senior research scientist Margo Edwards, with the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, said there are many more uncharted munitions on the ocean floor that still need to be studied.

Her three-year video survey of ordnance dumped south of Pearl Harbor, paid for by the army, has turned up about two thousand discarded bombs.

The survey also included samples of the ocean floor around the ordnance.

The scientist in charge says chemicals don't seem to have spread far from the ordnance, so its best to leave them where they are.

“They've deteriorated and rusted and I could easily imagine if we started bringing them up 1,500 feet through the water, they'd break apart and that stuff would be on the surface. Right now, it’s 1,500 feet away from you. I think it's a lot safer there.”

Edwards said more research is needed to find thousands of chemical bombs, containing mustard gas, which were dumped in areas outside of the study area.

Scientists also want to study the potential for chemicals from the ordnance to get into the ocean food chain.