World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless munitions have become matted together over the decades. They form a decaying blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

We initially anticipated to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a great moment, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had established habitats amid the explosives, creating a renewed habitat more populous than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are considered toxic and risky, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were dwelling on every meter squared of the weapons, experts reported in their research on the observation. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that things that are designed to eliminate everything are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. One can observe how nature evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most risky places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This study shows that munitions could be equally beneficial – the proliferation of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were dumped off the German shoreline. Numerous of workers loaded them in vessels; some were placed in allocated sites, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have turned into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations practically serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of marine species that are usually scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Wherever armed conflict has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are usually strewn with explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are poorly documented, in part because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the reality that archives are hidden in historical records. They pose an detonation and safety hazard, as well as danger from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and additional nations embark on removing these relics, experts aim to protect the marine communities that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses left from munitions with certain more secure, some harmless materials, like maybe artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for substituting structures after weapon clearance elsewhere – because including the most destructive weaponry can become foundation for marine organisms.