World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German coast lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, thousands weapons have become matted together over the years. They create a rusting blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

We initially expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members reacting with shock when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes on the explosives, forming a renewed marine community denser than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we find in locations that are considered hazardous and harmful, he states.

Over 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were dwelling on steel casings, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, experts documented in their research on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are meant to eliminate all life are attracting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most risky areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation shows that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were dumped off the German coast. Numerous of workers loaded them in barges; a portion were deposited in specific sites, the remainder just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have turned into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially function as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are typically uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are typically containing explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these weapons are inadequately documented, in part because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the situation that records are buried in historical records. They pose an detonation and security danger, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states start clearing these relics, researchers plan to safeguard the ecosystems that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being extracted.

We should substitute these metal carcasses originating from weapons with certain less dangerous, various non-dangerous materials, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck creates a model for substituting habitats after explosive extraction in other locations – because even the most damaging armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.