World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, numerous weapons have become matted together over the decades. They create a rusting carpet on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

Some of us thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first relayed pictures. This was a memorable occasion, he says.

Countless of ocean life had made their homes among the munitions, forming a revitalized marine community denser than the seabed around it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the persistence of life. Truly remarkable how much life we observe in locations that are expected to be dangerous and dangerous, he states.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, experts wrote in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are intended to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most risky areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create substitutes, compensating for some of the destroyed habitat. This study reveals that munitions could be equally positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were discarded off the Germany's coast. Countless of people placed them in vessels; a portion were dropped in designated areas, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance experts have documented how marine life has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically serve as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are typically rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Wherever warfare has happened in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are typically strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our marine environments.

The sites of these munitions are poorly mapped, partially because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the situation that documents are buried in historical records. They present an detonation and safety danger, as well as danger from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and additional nations begin removing these remains, researchers plan to safeguard the ecosystems that have established in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures remaining from weapons with certain less dangerous, various non-dangerous materials, like perhaps artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because even the most damaging armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.