World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless explosives have become matted together over the years. They form a decaying layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

We initially thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had settled amid the munitions, forming a revitalized habitat more populous than the seabed around it.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much life we find in locations that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he states.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was there, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers documented in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are intended to kill everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can create replacements, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This study shows that explosives could be comparably positive – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of arms were dumped off the German shoreline. Thousands of workers placed them in boats; some were deposited in allocated locations, the remainder just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more valuable for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of marine species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Factors

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the last century, adjacent waters are usually strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are poorly mapped, in part because of sovereign limits, secret armed forces records and the reality that archives are stored in old files. They pose an detonation and security hazard, as well as danger from the continuous emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states begin removing these remains, scientists plan to safeguard the habitats that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being cleared.

We should substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with some more secure, some non-dangerous objects, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for substituting material after munitions removal in other locations – because also the most damaging armaments can become framework for new life.