The US 7th fleet has decided it will clean up its own mess, collecting four bombs dropped near the Great Barrier Reef in a training exercise last fortnight.

Two fighter jets ditched the unarmed munitions onto the World Heritage listed Marine Park when they spotted civilian boats near a bombing range and could not land with the explosives still attached.

The US Navy says it is now working on a plan to pick up the inert bombs, working in tandem with Australian authorities.

Commanding Officer Daniel Dusek of the USS Bonhomme Richard said: “The status is still being reviewed by the US Navy and the US Government and the Australian Government... what I can tell you is the aircraft did take off from Bonhomme Richard and due to a series of unfortunate events that all kind of lined up, they were forced to jettison those bombs at about as safe a location as possibly could be done at the time.”

The incident occurred during the large-scale joint training exercise Talisman Sabre, which saw a number of collaborative programs between branches of US and Australian military. The US Navy says it will reveal more details of the planned clean-up operation soon.

US Commodore Hedie Agle says it was a lesson in communication: “There is a success story there too because with our Australian counterparts we were able to immediately respond, we were able to put out information for the safe navigation of the area, the individuals involved found a safe spot in an emergency situation, we informed all the appropriate people.”