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

In the brackish waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and forgotten about, thousands explosives have accumulated over the years. They form a corroding layer on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of sea creatures had made their homes on the munitions, forming a regenerated marine community denser than the sea floor surrounding it.

This marine city was evidence to the tenacity of life. Truly surprising how much life we discover in areas that are expected to be hazardous and dangerous, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were dwelling 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 discarded explosives. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists wrote in their research on the observation. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that objects that are intended to eliminate everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can create alternatives, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This study reveals that weapons could be comparably positive – the proliferation of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were dumped off the German shoreline. Countless of individuals transported them in vessels; some were placed in allocated locations, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the first time scientists have documented how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for organisms as the seas are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of organisms that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, in part because of sovereign limits, secret armed forces records and the reality that documents are stored in old files. They pose an detonation and safety danger, as well as risk from the continuous release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations begin removing these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are presently being removed.

We should substitute these iron structures remaining from munitions with some less dangerous, some non-dangerous materials, like maybe artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most destructive weaponry can become foundation for new life.