World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a corroding layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

We initially thought to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists shouting with surprise when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a great moment, he recalls.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes on the weapons, forming a revitalized habitat richer than the seabed around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the tenacity of life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in places that are expected to be dangerous and harmful, he says.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers reported in their study on the finding. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that objects that are intended to destroy all life are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most dangerous areas.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer alternatives, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This investigation shows that munitions could be equally positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of arms were discarded off the German coast. Countless of workers transported them in vessels; a portion were deposited in allocated locations, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance scientists have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired energy installations have turned into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become homes for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for organisms as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. Therefore a many of organisms that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are often containing explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our seas.

The sites of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted armed forces records and the reality that archives are stored in historical records. They pose an explosion and security risk, as well as threat from the persistent leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries start clearing these relics, researchers plan to protect the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are currently being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses originating from munitions with certain safer, some safe objects, like maybe man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting material after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most damaging armaments can become framework for marine organisms.