Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Discarded Armaments
In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous explosives have become matted together over the years. They form a decaying carpet on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.
Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons decayed.
Some of us expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.
When the team went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.
What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recalls his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first transmitted footage. This was a great moment, he says.
Thousands of ocean life had settled on the weapons, forming a renewed ecosystem denser than the sea floor surrounding it.
This ocean community was proof to the resilience of life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we discover in places that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he says.
More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.
Remarkable Population Density
An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were living on every square metre of the weapons, researchers wrote in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.
It is ironic that items that are intended to destroy everything are attracting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most hazardous areas.
Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats
Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation reveals that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be found in different areas.
Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of workers loaded them in barges; a portion were dropped in allocated locations, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time experts have documented how marine life has responded.
Worldwide Instances of Marine Adaptation
- In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have turned into coral reefs
- Shipwrecks from the World War I have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of 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 oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. Therefore a many of species that are usually rare or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.
Coming Considerations
Wherever warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are usually containing explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of explosive material remain in our seas.
The positions of these explosives are inadequately recorded, partially because of international boundaries, classified armed forces records and the situation that records are stored in historic archives. They pose an detonation and security danger, as well as risk from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.
As the German government and additional nations begin extracting these relics, researchers hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are currently being cleared.
It would be wise to substitute these steel remains left from munitions with some less dangerous, some safe structures, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.
He presently hopes that what happens in Lübeck creates a example for substituting material after weapon clearance in different areas – because including the most harmful explosives can become framework for marine organisms.