World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the World War II and forgotten about, countless explosives have accumulated over the years. They comprise a rusting carpet on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

Some of us anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

When the team went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team thought they would find a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. It was a great moment, he notes.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats on the munitions, creating a revitalized ecosystem more populous than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was evidence to the persistence of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, scientists wrote in their paper on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are intended to destroy everything are drawing so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most risky places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This investigation reveals that weapons could be comparably positive – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of munitions were disposed of off the German coast. Numerous of people loaded them in boats; a portion were dropped in specific sites, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance experts have studied how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Factors

Wherever armed conflict has taken place in the recent history, adjacent waters are often strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our seas.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, in part because of national borders, restricted armed forces records and the reality that documents are buried in old files. They pose an detonation and security danger, as well as danger from the continuous emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries start removing these artifacts, scientists hope to safeguard the habitats that have established in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being extracted.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from weapons with certain more secure, some harmless materials, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting habitats after munitions removal in different areas – because even the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.