World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the brackish waters off the Germany's coast rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a decaying carpet on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons eroded.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had made their homes among the explosives, creating a renewed habitat richer than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the resilience of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much life we find in locations that are expected to be toxic and risky, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were residing on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers wrote in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are meant to destroy all life are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create alternatives, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that explosives could be similarly positive – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Countless of people transported them in boats; some were dropped in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time researchers have documented how marine life has reacted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of marine species that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Issues

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the last century, adjacent waters are usually containing weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds lie in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are poorly mapped, partly because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the fact that archives are hidden in historic archives. They present an detonation and security risk, as well as threat from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations begin clearing these relics, scientists hope to preserve the marine communities that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with certain safer, some non-dangerous structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in Lübeck sets a model for substituting habitats after munitions removal in different areas – because even the most damaging explosives can become foundation for marine organisms.