🔗 Share this article Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Armaments In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from barges at the end of the World War II and neglected, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They comprise a corroding carpet on the low-depth, silty 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 increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated. We initially thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher. When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says a scientist. What they found surprised them. Vedenin recalls his team members reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. This was a memorable occasion, he says. Thousands of sea creatures had settled on the weapons, creating a regenerated habitat richer than the ocean bottom nearby. This marine city was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much life we find in places that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he explains. More than 40 starfish had piled on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments 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 resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin. Remarkable Population Density An average of more than 40,000 organisms were dwelling on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared. It is ironic that things that are designed to eliminate everything are hosting so much life, states Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous places. Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create substitutes, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in other locations. Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of munitions were discarded off the German shoreline. Numerous of workers transported them in vessels; some were placed in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time experts have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted. Global Examples of Marine Transformation In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have transformed into marine habitats Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam These places become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving. Future Factors Anywhere warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often strewn with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments. The positions of these explosives are inadequately documented, in part because of international boundaries, restricted armed forces records and the fact that documents are buried in historic archives. They create an detonation and security hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of poisonous compounds. As Germany and other countries embark on extracting these artifacts, scientists plan to preserve the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being cleared. It would be wise to substitute these iron structures remaining from weapons with certain less dangerous, some non-dangerous structures, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin. He currently hopes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing material after weapon clearance elsewhere – because also the most damaging armaments can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.
In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from barges at the end of the World War II and neglected, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They comprise a corroding carpet on the low-depth, silty 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 increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated. We initially thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher. When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says a scientist. What they found surprised them. Vedenin recalls his team members reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. This was a memorable occasion, he says. Thousands of sea creatures had settled on the weapons, creating a regenerated habitat richer than the ocean bottom nearby. This marine city was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much life we find in places that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he explains. More than 40 starfish had piled on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments 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 resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin. Remarkable Population Density An average of more than 40,000 organisms were dwelling on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared. It is ironic that things that are designed to eliminate everything are hosting so much life, states Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous places. Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create substitutes, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in other locations. Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of munitions were discarded off the German shoreline. Numerous of workers transported them in vessels; some were placed in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time experts have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted. Global Examples of Marine Transformation In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have transformed into marine habitats Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam These places become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving. Future Factors Anywhere warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often strewn with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments. The positions of these explosives are inadequately documented, in part because of international boundaries, restricted armed forces records and the fact that documents are buried in historic archives. They create an detonation and security hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of poisonous compounds. As Germany and other countries embark on extracting these artifacts, scientists plan to preserve the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being cleared. It would be wise to substitute these iron structures remaining from weapons with certain less dangerous, some non-dangerous structures, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin. He currently hopes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing material after weapon clearance elsewhere – because also the most damaging armaments can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.