World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline lies a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the second world war and left behind, thousands explosives have become matted together over the years. They form a corroding blanket on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Thousands of sea creatures had established habitats amid the munitions, creating a renewed habitat denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of life. It is actually astonishing how much life we find in locations that are considered dangerous and harmful, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It's similar to a coral 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 dwelling on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists documented in their paper on the discovery. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are intended to destroy everything are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This research shows that explosives could be comparably positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be found in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Thousands of people transported them in boats; some were placed in designated locations, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have become coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to coral off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially function as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of marine species that are typically uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Issues

Wherever warfare has occurred in the last century, adjacent waters are often strewn with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these weapons are poorly documented, in part because of sovereign limits, restricted armed forces records and the fact that records are hidden in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as risk from the persistent leakage of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states begin extracting these relics, experts plan to safeguard the ecosystems that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are already being removed.

We should replace these iron structures remaining from weapons with some more secure, some harmless objects, like maybe man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a example for replacing structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because including the most damaging weaponry can become foundation for new life.