World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Discarded from barges at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, countless weapons have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a corroding layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a memorable occasion, he says.

Numerous of sea creatures had settled amid the weapons, forming a regenerated habitat richer than the sea floor nearby.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are supposed to be hazardous and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was present, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, experts wrote in their research on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are designed to destroy everything are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most risky locations.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This investigation reveals that explosives could be similarly beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of individuals transported them in vessels; some were placed in allocated locations, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have recorded how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have turned into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks 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 in Guam

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of organisms that are otherwise rare or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Anywhere warfare has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are usually littered with weapons, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The positions of these weapons are inadequately recorded, partly because of international boundaries, restricted armed forces records and the fact that documents are hidden in historic archives. They create an explosion and security hazard, as well as danger from the ongoing release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and different states start extracting these relics, experts hope to protect the marine communities that have developed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains left from weapons with certain less dangerous, some non-dangerous materials, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what happens in Lübeck sets a precedent for substituting material after munitions removal elsewhere – because even the most destructive explosives can become framework for new life.