World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Discarded Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German coast rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from barges at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands munitions have become matted together over the years. They form a decaying layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially thought to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his scientists shouting with surprise when the submersible first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he says.

Numerous of ocean life had settled on the weapons, forming a renewed habitat more populous than the sea floor around it.

This marine city was testament to the tenacity of life. Truly surprising how much life we discover in locations that are considered toxic and risky, he explains.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were dwelling on every meter squared of the munitions, experts reported in their study on the observation. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are meant to destroy everything are attracting so much life, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This research shows that munitions could be similarly beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Thousands of people loaded them in boats; some were placed in allocated sites, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have become coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more crucial for wildlife as the seas are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. As a result a lot of organisms that are typically rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever military conflict has happened in the recent history, adjacent waters are usually littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are poorly documented, partly because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the fact that records are stored in old files. They present an explosion and security hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations embark on clearing these artifacts, scientists aim to protect the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses originating from weapons with some safer, various safe structures, like possibly man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for replacing structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because also the most harmful armaments can become framework for marine organisms.