World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons
In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the World War II and left behind, thousands munitions have accumulated over the years. They comprise a rusting layer on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of LĆ¼beck in the western part of the Baltic.
Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions eroded.
Some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.
When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.
What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he notes.
Thousands of marine animals had settled among the explosives, creating a renewed marine community denser than the sea floor around it.
This marine city was testament to the persistence of life. It is actually remarkable how much life we find in places that are expected to be toxic and risky, he states.
In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were residing on metal shells, ignition chambers and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.
Remarkable Population Density
An average of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the explosives, researchers documented in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.
It is ironic that items that are meant to eliminate all life are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most risky areas.
Artificial Structures as Marine Environments
Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer substitutes, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This investigation reveals that weapons could be similarly beneficial ā the proliferation of life on those in the LĆ¼beck Bay is expected to be repeated elsewhere.
Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the Germany's coast. Numerous of workers loaded them in vessels; some were placed in specific areas, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how marine life has responded.
Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation
- In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into reef ecosystems
- Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
- Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam
These areas become even more crucial for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively act as sanctuaries ā they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of organisms that are usually uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.
Coming Issues
Wherever military conflict has taken place in the recent history, surrounding seas are often containing munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds lie in our seas.
The locations of these explosives are insufficiently documented, in part because of sovereign limits, secret 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 ongoing emission of hazardous substances.
As Germany and additional nations start removing these remains, researchers aim to safeguard the habitats that have formed around them. In the LĆ¼beck Bay explosives are presently being removed.
Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with certain more secure, various safe objects, like possibly artificial reefs, says Vedenin.
He presently aspires that what transpires in the Bay of LĆ¼beck creates a precedent for substituting structures after munitions removal in other locations ā because including the most damaging explosives can become framework for marine organisms.
