World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast lies a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a corroding carpet on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons deteriorated.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says the lead researcher.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Numerous of sea creatures had established habitats on the explosives, developing a renewed marine community more populous than the sea floor nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Truly remarkable how much life we observe in locations that are expected to be hazardous and dangerous, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were living on metal shells, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were living on every square metre of the weapons, scientists reported in their research on the finding. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that things that are designed to kill all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most risky locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that munitions could be similarly beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the German coast. Thousands of workers transported them in vessels; some were deposited in allocated locations, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time researchers have documented how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of marine species that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has happened in the recent history, adjacent waters are often strewn with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are poorly recorded, partially because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the situation that records are buried in historical records. They present an detonation and security danger, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of hazardous substances.

As the German government and different states start clearing these remains, experts plan to protect the marine communities that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being extracted.

We should substitute these iron structures left from munitions with some safer, various non-dangerous materials, like maybe artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing structures after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most harmful explosives can become foundation for new life.