World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, numerous munitions have become matted together over the decades. They create a rusting blanket on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us thought to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us thought they would find a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he says.

Numerous of sea creatures had made their homes on the weapons, forming a renewed ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the resilience of life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we find in places that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he explains.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were residing on steel casings, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every square metre of the weapons, researchers documented in their paper on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to kill all life are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This study shows that weapons could be comparably advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of workers transported them in barges; a portion were dropped in allocated sites, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance experts have documented how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially serve as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of marine species that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere military conflict has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually containing munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are inadequately mapped, in part because of sovereign limits, secret armed forces records and the fact that records are buried in historical records. They pose an explosion and security danger, as well as danger from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these relics, scientists hope to protect the habitats that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being extracted.

We should substitute these iron structures originating from munitions with certain less dangerous, various safe objects, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing structures after weapon clearance in other locations – because even the most destructive armaments can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.