World War II Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German coast lies a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the second world war and left behind, thousands munitions have accumulated over the decades. They create a decaying carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay 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 calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

Some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Numerous of sea creatures had established habitats amid the explosives, forming a regenerated ecosystem denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of life. Truly remarkable how much life we discover in places that are supposed to be toxic and dangerous, he states.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were living on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the munitions, scientists reported in their research on the observation. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that objects that are designed to eliminate all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can offer replacements, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This study demonstrates that explosives could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms 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 munitions were disposed of off the German coast. Numerous of workers placed them in barges; a portion were deposited in specific locations, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have turned into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more important for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations effectively serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of organisms that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are usually containing munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our seas.

The positions of these munitions are insufficiently documented, in part because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the fact that records are buried in old files. They create an explosion and security danger, as well as risk from the ongoing emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states start clearing these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being removed.

Researchers recommend substitute these steel remains remaining from weapons with some less dangerous, some non-dangerous materials, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck sets a example for replacing material after weapon clearance elsewhere – because even the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.