World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless explosives have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had established habitats amid the munitions, creating a renewed habitat more populous than the ocean bottom nearby.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of life. It is actually surprising how much life we discover in places that are supposed to be toxic and dangerous, he states.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, researchers reported in their research on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to kill all life are drawing so much life, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most risky places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can offer replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that explosives could be similarly positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of munitions were disposed of off the German coast. Numerous of people placed them in vessels; a portion were placed in specific areas, the remainder just dumped during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Anywhere warfare has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually strewn with munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material lie in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are insufficiently mapped, partially because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the situation that archives are buried in historic archives. They pose an explosion and security risk, as well as danger from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and other countries start clearing these remains, experts plan to preserve the ecosystems that have established in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are presently being extracted.

We should substitute these iron structures remaining from munitions with certain less dangerous, various non-dangerous structures, like perhaps concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting structures after munitions removal elsewhere – because also the most destructive weaponry can become framework for new life.