World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, countless weapons have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a rusting blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons deteriorated.

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

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Numerous of sea creatures had established habitats among the explosives, developing a revitalized marine community more populous than the seabed around it.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we find in areas that are supposed to be hazardous and risky, he says.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, fuse pockets and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. 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 quantity of creatures that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, researchers documented in their paper on the finding. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are intended to kill all life are hosting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most risky locations.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that weapons could be similarly positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of munitions were discarded off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people placed them in barges; a portion were placed in specific sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas effectively act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are usually strewn with munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the fact that archives are hidden in historic archives. They pose an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the ongoing release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries start clearing these relics, experts aim to preserve the ecosystems that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are already being extracted.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with some less dangerous, some non-dangerous objects, like maybe artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most destructive explosives can become foundation for marine organisms.