World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, thousands explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a decaying carpet on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us thought to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists shouting with surprise when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Countless of sea creatures had settled among the weapons, creating a regenerated habitat richer than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of life. It is actually astonishing how much life we discover in places that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he says.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible fragment of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was present, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists reported in their study on the discovery. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are intended to eliminate everything are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can offer alternatives, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation shows that explosives could be equally positive – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of arms were disposed of off the German shoreline. Numerous of individuals transported them in barges; a portion were deposited in specific areas, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time scientists have studied how marine life has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the oceans are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively act as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of organisms that are typically rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are often littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our seas.

The sites of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partially because of national borders, secret defense data and the reality that archives are hidden in historical records. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries start extracting these remains, experts hope to protect the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being extracted.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from weapons with certain safer, various non-dangerous materials, like perhaps concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting material after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most destructive explosives can become framework for new life.