World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have become matted together over the years. They form a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had settled amid the munitions, forming a renewed marine community more populous than the sea floor around it.

This ocean community was testament to the tenacity of life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we find in locations that are supposed to be hazardous and dangerous, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the old munitions. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of creatures that was present, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

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

It is paradoxical that objects that are meant to eliminate all life are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This study reveals that munitions could be comparably positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of individuals transported them in boats; a portion were placed in specific areas, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more crucial for organisms as the oceans are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, states Vedenin. As a result a many of species that are otherwise rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically strewn with weapons, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our marine environments.

The positions of these munitions are poorly documented, in part because of national borders, restricted defense data and the reality that records are buried in old files. They present an explosion and security danger, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and additional nations start removing these remains, researchers plan to safeguard the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to replace these iron structures originating from weapons with some less dangerous, various harmless objects, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for substituting material after weapon clearance elsewhere – because including the most destructive armaments can become foundation for marine organisms.