World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Dumped Armaments
In the brackish sea off the German shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless weapons have become matted together over the years. They create a corroding layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.
Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists came to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.
Some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.
When the first scientists went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.
What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he says.
Numerous of marine animals had made their homes amid the weapons, creating a revitalized habitat denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.
This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we find in areas that are supposed to be toxic and harmful, he explains.
More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of animal life that was present, notes Vedenin.
Surprising Creature Concentration
An average of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the explosives, experts documented in their study on the discovery. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.
It is ironic that things that are intended to kill everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most dangerous locations.
Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats
Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide substitutes, restoring some of the removed habitat. This investigation shows that explosives could be comparably positive – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found in other locations.
Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of people transported them in vessels; a portion were dropped in designated locations, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.
Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation
- In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become reef ecosystems
- Sunken ships from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
- Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island
These locations become even more important for organisms as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially serve as refuges – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a many of organisms that are usually uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.
Future Factors
Wherever military conflict has happened in the last century, surrounding seas are often containing explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our seas.
The positions of these munitions are insufficiently documented, in part because of sovereign limits, secret armed forces records and the reality that documents are hidden in old files. They create an detonation and security danger, as well as risk from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.
As the German government and additional nations embark on clearing these relics, scientists plan to protect the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being removed.
We should substitute these steel remains originating from weapons with certain safer, some safe materials, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.
He now wishes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for replacing habitats after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most destructive armaments can become framework for new life.
