World War II Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the World War II and neglected, thousands munitions have accumulated over the decades. They create a decaying blanket on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

Some of us anticipated to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recounts his scientists shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes amid the explosives, forming a regenerated ecosystem more populous than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was testament to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are considered toxic and risky, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible fragment of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every square metre of the munitions, experts wrote in their paper on the discovery. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are designed to eliminate everything are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer substitutes, replacing some of the lost habitat. This research shows that explosives could be equally beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be found elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the German coast. Numerous of workers transported them in vessels; a portion were dropped in designated sites, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have become reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These places become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded 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 human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of organisms that are typically uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the recent history, adjacent waters are typically containing weapons, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The sites of these explosives are inadequately recorded, in part because of international boundaries, secret defense data and the reality that archives are buried in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries begin extracting these relics, scientists plan to preserve the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being removed.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with some safer, some non-dangerous objects, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for substituting habitats after explosive extraction in other locations – because even the most damaging armaments can become scaffolding for new life.