World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German coast sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, numerous weapons have become matted together over the years. They comprise a corroding layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a desert, with nothing living there 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, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. This was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had made their homes on the munitions, creating a regenerated habitat more populous than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of life. Indeed remarkable how much life we observe in places that are considered hazardous and risky, he says.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible fragment of TNT. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were dwelling on every meter squared of the munitions, scientists reported in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are intended to kill all life are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most risky areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer replacements, restoring some of the removed habitat. This investigation reveals that explosives could be equally positive – the proliferation of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's coast. Numerous of workers loaded them in vessels; a portion were dropped in specific locations, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more crucial for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a many of marine species that are usually uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are typically containing weapons, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are inadequately recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the reality that documents are buried in historical records. They present an explosion and security hazard, as well as danger from the continuous emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states start removing these remains, experts plan to preserve the marine communities that have formed around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being removed.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with some more secure, various non-dangerous structures, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting material after weapon clearance in other locations – because even the most destructive weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.