World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Weapons

In the brackish sea off the Germany's coast sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and left behind, thousands explosives have accumulated over the decades. They form a corroding blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Some of us thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us thought they would find a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes on the explosives, forming a revitalized ecosystem more populous than the sea floor around it.

This ocean community was testament to the resilience of life. It is actually astonishing how much life we discover in areas that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he states.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers reported in their paper on the finding. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are designed to eliminate all life are attracting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create alternatives, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This study reveals that weapons could be equally advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were discarded off the Germany's coast. Countless of individuals loaded them in vessels; some were deposited in allocated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more valuable for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of species that are otherwise rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are typically containing weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our marine environments.

The sites of these munitions are insufficiently documented, partly because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the reality that archives are buried in old files. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states start extracting these remains, experts plan to safeguard the ecosystems that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures remaining from weapons with some less dangerous, various non-dangerous structures, like maybe man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in Lübeck creates a example for replacing habitats after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most destructive explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.