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

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands explosives have become matted together over the years. They comprise a rusting layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the submersible first relayed pictures. It was a remarkable experience, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had settled amid the explosives, creating a regenerated habitat more populous than the ocean bottom nearby.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much life we find in areas that are supposed to be hazardous and dangerous, he states.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were dwelling on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were living on every square metre of the explosives, researchers documented in their research on the finding. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that things that are designed to destroy all life are attracting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature evolves after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most risky locations.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create replacements, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This research reveals that munitions could be similarly positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Numerous of people loaded them in boats; a portion were dropped in designated areas, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for organisms as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of species that are otherwise scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Considerations

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the last century, adjacent waters are typically strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The positions of these weapons are inadequately mapped, partly because of sovereign limits, restricted armed forces records and the situation that documents are buried in historic archives. They present an detonation and security hazard, as well as danger from the continuous release of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and other countries start extracting these artifacts, experts plan to protect the habitats that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being removed.

Researchers recommend substitute these iron structures left from munitions with certain less dangerous, various harmless materials, like perhaps concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting material after explosive extraction in other locations – because also the most destructive armaments can become framework for marine organisms.