World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Weapons

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless weapons have become matted together over the decades. They form a decaying blanket on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

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. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first relayed pictures. This was a great moment, he recalls.

Thousands of ocean life had established habitats amid the munitions, developing a renewed ecosystem more populous than the sea floor nearby.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the persistence of life. It is actually remarkable how much life we discover in places that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one visible piece of TNT. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers wrote in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are designed to kill all life are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer substitutes, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation shows that munitions could be comparably positive – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of munitions were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of people loaded them in barges; some were deposited in allocated locations, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time scientists have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become homes for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are usually scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances rest in our marine environments.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partially because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the reality that archives are stored in historic archives. They pose an explosion and security danger, as well as threat from the persistent emission of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations start extracting these artifacts, experts hope to preserve the ecosystems that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are presently being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures originating from weapons with certain more secure, various harmless structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for replacing habitats after explosive extraction in different areas – because including the most destructive explosives can become foundation for marine organisms.