World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons
In the brackish sea off the German coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous munitions have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.
Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.
Some of us thought to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.
When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us anticipated finding a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.
What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he recalls.
Thousands of marine animals had made their homes on the explosives, creating a renewed marine community richer than the seabed nearby.
This underwater metropolis was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. Indeed surprising how much life we discover in places that are expected to be hazardous and dangerous, he explains.
In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.
Surprising Population Density
An average of more than 40,000 creatures were residing on every square metre of the explosives, experts reported in their paper on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.
It is surprising that things that are designed to kill everything are attracting so much life, says 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 returns to the most risky places.
Artificial Features as Ocean Environments
Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, restoring some of the removed habitat. This research reveals that weapons could be equally advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated in other locations.
Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's coast. Thousands of individuals loaded them in barges; some were dropped in specific areas, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time experts have documented how ocean organisms has responded.
Global Examples of Marine Adaptation
- In the US, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
- Submerged vessels from the first world war have become homes for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
- Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island
These areas become even more crucial for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. As a result a many of marine species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.
Future Issues
Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically containing weapons, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.
The locations of these weapons are insufficiently recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted military information and the situation that records are hidden in historical records. They present an explosion and security hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.
As the German government and other countries begin clearing these remains, scientists aim to preserve the habitats that have formed around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being extracted.
It would be wise to replace these iron structures originating from munitions with some more secure, some safe structures, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.
He presently aspires that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because even the most damaging explosives can become framework for new life.
