World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off barges at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, numerous explosives have become matted together over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

We initially expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers anticipated finding a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues reacting with shock when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Thousands of sea creatures had settled on the munitions, developing a revitalized habitat more populous than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Truly astonishing how much life we discover in areas that are expected to be dangerous and harmful, he explains.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one visible fragment of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists documented in their paper on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are designed to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most risky locations.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, compensating for some of the removed habitat. This study reveals that explosives could be equally advantageous – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be found in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of individuals transported them in barges; some were dropped in allocated locations, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more crucial for organisms as the oceans are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. Consequently a lot of organisms that are typically rare or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually littered with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material remain in our seas.

The sites of these munitions are inadequately mapped, in part because of international boundaries, secret armed forces records and the fact that archives are stored in historical records. They present an explosion and safety danger, as well as danger from the continuous emission of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these remains, experts hope to preserve the ecosystems that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses originating from munitions with certain safer, various safe structures, like possibly man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck sets a precedent for substituting structures after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.