World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline lies a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous munitions have become matted together over the years. They form a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

We initially thought to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats on the munitions, creating a regenerated ecosystem richer than the seabed around it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of marine life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we find in locations that are expected to be toxic and risky, he states.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of creatures that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every square metre of the weapons, experts wrote in their research on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to destroy everything are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create substitutes, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation shows that explosives could be equally beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be found in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of munitions were discarded off the German coast. Numerous of people transported them in barges; a portion were placed in specific sites, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time researchers have documented how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become homes for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially function as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a many of species that are typically uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Wherever warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are typically littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our marine environments.

The sites of these explosives are insufficiently mapped, in part because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the fact that documents are hidden in historical records. They create an explosion and security hazard, as well as threat from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations start extracting these relics, scientists plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being removed.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses originating from munitions with some less dangerous, various safe structures, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what happens in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing structures after weapon clearance in other locations – because even the most damaging explosives can become framework for new life.