There’s a stretch of the Baltic Sea, called the Bay of Lübeck, where marine creatures are settling and making a home in undetonated Nazi bombs dating back to World War II.
During World War II, Germany and many other countries disposed of unused explosive munitions by just chucking them into the ocean. Nearly a century later, the result is an underwater minefield of 1.6 million tons of corroding death, just hanging out at the bottom of the sea off the German coast. You’d think marine life would steer clear of a toxic wasteland, but nope. Some species are making the best of a potentially explosive situation.
A recent study led by marine biologist Andrey Vedenin, published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, reveals that more animals are living on the dumped warheads than in the seafloor around them.
Using a remotely operated vehicle in the Bay of Lübeck, researchers found eight species of fish and invertebrates clinging to the V1 flying bomb casings. Barnacles, mussels, worms, and a variety of other sea creatures have all found a home in leftover World War II-era artillery.
The researchers suspect there are around 43,000 individuals per square meter on the bombs, compared to a paltry 8,200 in nearby sediment. That’s nearly five times the population density, even though chemical analysis of the water around the warheads showed levels of TNT approaching the toxicity threshold for marine organisms.
They should be avoiding it, but they’re not. Why? Why are these animals living in Chernobyl under the sea? Because, according to the researchers, it’s all about real estate. The metal casings offer a hard, stable surface in a seabed of shifting mud. It’s prime property that they’d be dumb to pass up, even if it is slowly poisoning them and will absolutely kill them.
Despite how satisfied the sea creatures seem to be with their bomb dwellings, the researchers still recommend removing the bombs and replacing them with non-toxic artificial reefs. We shouldn’t be disturbing a sea creature’s habitat, but when that habitat is a very literal bomb filled with toxic chemicals poisoning the animals and the environment, then we should probably stop letting them do that.
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