World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had established habitats among the weapons, developing a revitalized ecosystem more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of life. Indeed surprising how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists wrote in their research on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that objects that are intended to destroy all life are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create substitutes, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation reveals that weapons could be similarly beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were disposed of off the German coast. Countless of individuals loaded them in vessels; a portion were dropped in designated areas, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time experts have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially function as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of species that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our marine environments.

The locations of these explosives are poorly recorded, partially because of international boundaries, classified military information and the reality that archives are stored in old files. They present an detonation and safety danger, as well as risk from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states begin removing these relics, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being cleared.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from weapons with certain less dangerous, some non-dangerous objects, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck sets a example for replacing structures after explosive extraction in other locations – because including the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.