World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish waters off the Germany's coast lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They create a decaying carpet on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Numerous of marine animals had settled amid the munitions, developing a revitalized ecosystem richer than the sea floor surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of life. Truly remarkable how much life we discover in areas that are supposed to be toxic and harmful, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every meter squared of the weapons, experts documented in their study on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that things that are designed to kill everything are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, restoring some of the lost habitat. This study reveals that explosives could be comparably positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of people placed them in barges; a portion were dropped in specific locations, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time experts have documented how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of species that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are often containing explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our oceans.

The sites of these weapons are inadequately documented, partly because of sovereign limits, secret armed forces records and the reality that documents are buried in old files. They create an detonation and security hazard, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries start extracting these remains, scientists plan to protect the marine communities that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being removed.

We should substitute these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with some more secure, some safe objects, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for substituting material after munitions removal in other locations – because even the most damaging armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.