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

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline lies a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless munitions have become matted together over the years. They comprise a corroding carpet on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

We initially anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. This was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Thousands of sea creatures had settled among the weapons, creating a renewed marine community denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we find in areas that are expected to be dangerous and harmful, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, experts wrote in their research on the finding. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are intended to destroy everything are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can create alternatives, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This research shows that weapons could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Thousands of workers transported them in vessels; some were deposited in designated areas, the remainder just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the first time experts have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more valuable for marine life as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are typically uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically littered with munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our oceans.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently mapped, partly because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the fact that documents are stored in historic archives. They pose an detonation and safety hazard, as well as risk from the continuous emission of hazardous substances.

As Germany and other countries begin clearing these remains, scientists plan to safeguard the habitats that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses left from weapons with certain less dangerous, various safe objects, like maybe man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in Lübeck sets a example for substituting habitats after weapon clearance elsewhere – because even the most destructive armaments can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.