World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They comprise a decaying layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers anticipated to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team thought they would find a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he says.

Numerous of sea creatures had established habitats on the explosives, developing a revitalized habitat more populous than the ocean bottom nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much life we discover in locations that are expected to be toxic and risky, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was present, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists documented in their paper on the finding. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to kill everything are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, restoring some of the removed habitat. This investigation demonstrates that munitions could be equally positive – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were disposed of off the German coast. Thousands of individuals loaded them in vessels; some were deposited in specific sites, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time experts have studied how marine life has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially act as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of organisms that are usually scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the last century, nearby oceans are typically containing explosives, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of explosive material lie in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are inadequately documented, partly because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the situation that documents are hidden in historic archives. They create an explosion and security risk, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states embark on extracting these artifacts, researchers hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being extracted.

We should substitute these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with some safer, some non-dangerous structures, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck establishes a example for substituting structures after munitions removal elsewhere – because also the most damaging armaments can become foundation for new life.