A routine lobster dive turned 'terrifying' when a man found a WWII torpedo lurking in the Florida surf.

Fort Pierce sits on Florida's Atlantic coast in St. Lucie County, on a stretch known as the Treasure Coast. Its inlet and nearby reef ledges draw recreational divers who hunt lobster. The area was a United States Navy amphibious training site during World War II, and divers there have reported finding old ordnance before. In August 2026, diver Luke Neiman went lobster diving with his father and a friend off Florida's coast, and CubaHeadlines, citing WESH 2 News, reported that he found an object he believed was a torpedo. They were working south of the Fort Pierce jetty, an area Neiman visits often for lobster. He reported the object to Florida wildlife officers, and CubaHeadlines reported that the Navy later destroyed it in an underwater detonation. The Navy described it as a suspected munition from World War II.

Luke Neiman's August dive south of the Fort Pierce jettyCubaHeadlines reported that the commission informed the US Coast Guard, the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office bomb squad and the Navy. Neiman saw something that did not quite fit into the reef.

As CubaHeadlines described it, Neiman inspected the object and noticed an end and a cone, which led him to think it might be a torpedo. He returned to the boat, marked the exact location with his father, and informed the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission about the discovery.

The September 15, 2026 Navy disposal off St. Lucie CountyCubaHeadlines reported that the commission informed the US Coast Guard, the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office bomb squad and the Navy. Navy explosive ordnance disposal personnel then carried out an underwater detonation on September 15, 2026, which the Navy's statement called a routine underwater munition disposal operation. That wording describes the Navy's operation, not the discovery itself. The statement identified the object as a suspected World War II-era munition. The statements cited here give no type, model, or origin for the object.The Department of Defense's November 2016 report on munitions disposed at seaThere is a technical explanation for the warning. The Department of Defense's November 2016 report to Congress, Research Related to Effect of Ocean Disposal of Munitions in U.S. Coastal Waters, examines the challenges of assessing and managing munitions disposed of at sea. The department's Ordnance Reef pages say that sea disposal of unserviceable munitions was an accepted practice until the 1970s, so the location and condition of such munitions are often uncertain. That uncertainty is why the department advises people to use its "Recognize, Retreat, Report" safety program instead of trying to retrieve a suspected munition themselves: recognize that it is dangerous, retreat without approaching, touching, moving, or disturbing it, and report it by calling 911. Whether Neiman's object was a result of disposal or training is not mentioned anywhere in public sources.The Fort Pierce training base that closed in 1946The area has a documented military past. The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum states that the Naval Amphibious Training Base at Fort Pierce closed in 1946 after about 140,000 men had received some form of training there. The museum's own pages give both June 1943 and July 1943 for the start of the first Naval Combat Demolition Unit class, while the Navy's All Hands magazine says the NCDU training school was established at Fort Pierce on June 6, 1943. The Museum of Florida History adds that trainees also learned to operate various landing craft.DIVE Magazine reported that discoveries of historical military ordnance are not uncommon along Florida's Treasure Coast, where the US military conducted amphibious warfare training before the Normandy invasion during World War II. Diver Tom Gramlich's find of a World War II-era device near Pepper Park in Fort Pierce, which the METIS event log dates to January 13, 2026.What a NOAA survey of a Hawaii munitions site foundThe appendix of the above-mentioned study summarises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2007 Ordnance Reef Survey Project Report. According to the FAQ, the military had done a survey of this area in 2002 in which they had found more than 2,000 military ordnance, all of which were under 60 feet in depth, that are unfuzed, unfired, and not chemical in nature. The study conducted by NOAA will use seafloor imaging technology, a remotely operated vehicle, and independent testing of fish, sediments, and water.The report concluded that the effects of sea-disposed munitions in US coastal waters appear to be minimal, and that removing them would do more harm to marine life and the ocean environment than leaving them in place. It based these conclusions on research at two Hawaii sites. They also state that the department will dispatch explosive ordnance disposal staff if there is a threat to public safety from the munitions. The report's general advice to leave disposal-site munitions in place therefore does not explain the Navy's decision to detonate the object, because the sources consulted do not say it came from a disposal site.