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

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast lies a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless munitions have become matted together over the decades. They form a rusting blanket on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first transmitted footage. This was a great moment, he says.

Numerous of marine animals had settled amid the munitions, creating a renewed ecosystem richer than the sea floor surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we find in places that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he states.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, scientists documented in their study on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to eliminate all life are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how nature evolves after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create alternatives, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This investigation reveals that explosives could be comparably positive – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of people loaded them in vessels; a portion were dropped in specific areas, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time experts have documented how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, retired energy installations have turned into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of organisms that are otherwise scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the last century, nearby oceans are often littered with munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our seas.

The sites of these munitions are poorly recorded, in part because of international boundaries, classified military information and the reality that records are hidden in historic archives. They create an detonation and security hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states embark on clearing these relics, researchers plan to preserve the habitats that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with certain safer, various harmless objects, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing material after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most harmful weaponry can become foundation for marine organisms.