World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, thousands weapons have become matted together over the years. They comprise a corroding layer on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a memorable occasion, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had settled on the weapons, developing a revitalized ecosystem denser than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of life. It is actually remarkable how much life we observe in areas that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one visible piece of TNT. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was there, states Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every square metre of the explosives, scientists wrote in their study on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are designed to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This study shows that weapons could be equally positive – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Countless of workers transported them in barges; some were deposited in specific sites, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more crucial for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations practically function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are typically uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Factors

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the last century, nearby oceans are usually strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are poorly recorded, partly because of national borders, restricted military information and the fact that records are stored in old files. They pose an detonation and security hazard, as well as threat from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations begin extracting these artifacts, scientists plan to protect the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being removed.

We should substitute these metal carcasses originating from weapons with some safer, some harmless structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for substituting structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because also the most destructive armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.