Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a rusting layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

We initially expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin recalls his team members reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes amid the explosives, forming a renewed habitat richer than the sea floor surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Indeed surprising how much marine organisms we discover in places that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he states.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible chunk of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every square metre of the munitions, researchers reported in their study on the finding. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are meant to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, compensating for some of the removed habitat. This investigation reveals that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Countless of people loaded them in boats; a portion were dropped in allocated sites, others just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively serve as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are often containing munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently mapped, in part because of international boundaries, secret defense data and the reality that documents are hidden in old files. They pose an explosion and security hazard, as well as threat from the continuous emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations start removing these remains, researchers hope to protect the ecosystems that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are presently being cleared.

We should substitute these steel remains left from weapons with some more secure, some safe materials, like possibly man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He now wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing habitats after munitions removal in other locations – because also the most destructive armaments can become foundation for marine organisms.