World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless explosives have accumulated over the years. They form a rusting blanket on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

We initially expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recalls his team members shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Numerous of sea creatures had settled among the weapons, creating a regenerated habitat more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he says.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every meter squared of the weapons, experts reported in their research on the observation. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to eliminate all life are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create substitutes, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This study demonstrates that munitions could be similarly beneficial – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of people placed them in barges; some were deposited in designated sites, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time scientists have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are typically strewn with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our seas.

The sites of these weapons are poorly recorded, partly because of international boundaries, secret military information and the fact that documents are hidden in historical records. They present an detonation and security risk, as well as threat from the continuous release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states begin extracting these relics, researchers aim to protect the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures originating from munitions with certain more secure, some safe materials, like perhaps concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because including the most damaging weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.