Australian Senator, Larissa Waters, the Greens party‘s spokeswoman on the Great Barrier Reef, described the dumping of bombs in such an environmentally sensitive area as outrageous and said it should not be allowed.

„Have we gone completely mad?“ she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. „Is this how we look after our World Heritage area now? Letting a foreign power drop bombs on it?“.

Graeme Dunstan, who is among the environmentalists and anti-war activists demonstrating against the joint exercises, said the mishap proved that the US military could not be trusted to protect the environment.

„How can they protect the environment and bomb the reef at the same time? Get real,“ Dunstan said.