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

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's coast sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands munitions have become matted together over the years. They comprise a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a memorable occasion, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had settled on the weapons, creating a renewed marine community more populous than the sea floor around it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the persistence of life. It is actually surprising how much life we discover in areas that are considered dangerous and risky, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were residing on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was present, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the weapons, experts wrote in their study on the observation. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that things that are meant to destroy everything are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can provide alternatives, restoring some of the lost habitat. This study demonstrates that weapons could be similarly positive – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were discarded off the German coast. Countless of people placed them in boats; some were placed in designated areas, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically function as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. Consequently a lot of organisms that are usually rare or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever warfare has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are often containing explosives, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are inadequately mapped, partly because of international boundaries, secret military information and the reality that documents are stored in old files. They pose an explosion and safety danger, as well as risk from the continuous release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states embark on extracting these remains, researchers aim to protect the ecosystems that have established in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being removed.

Researchers recommend replace these steel remains remaining from weapons with certain more secure, various harmless structures, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after munitions removal elsewhere – because even the most destructive weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.