World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the World War II and left behind, thousands munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They create a rusting blanket on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

Researchers anticipated to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. That moment was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes on the weapons, creating a regenerated ecosystem richer than the seabed surrounding it.

This ocean community was proof to the resilience of life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he says.

Over 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were living on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists reported in their study on the finding. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to eliminate everything are attracting so much life, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide alternatives, restoring some of the removed habitat. This study shows that weapons could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were dumped off the German shoreline. Numerous of workers loaded them in barges; some were placed in allocated areas, others just dumped while traveling. This is the first time scientists have recorded how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more important for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically serve as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a many of organisms that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Issues

Wherever warfare has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are usually littered with munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The sites of these explosives are inadequately documented, partly because of international boundaries, secret military information and the situation that records are hidden in historical records. They present an explosion and safety danger, as well as threat from the persistent emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations begin clearing these artifacts, experts aim to preserve the habitats that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains originating from munitions with certain more secure, various harmless structures, like perhaps man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He now wishes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing material after munitions removal in other locations – because also the most harmful explosives can become framework for new life.