World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the World War II and left behind, numerous weapons have become matted together over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Numerous of marine animals had made their homes on the explosives, creating a revitalized marine community denser than the seabed around it.

This marine city was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we find in places that are considered hazardous and harmful, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every meter squared of the explosives, researchers reported in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to kill everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how nature evolves after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer alternatives, compensating for some of the removed habitat. This investigation reveals that munitions could be equally advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of arms were disposed of off the German shoreline. Thousands of people placed them in barges; some were dropped in designated locations, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have turned into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of organisms that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are typically littered with weapons, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, classified armed forces records and the situation that records are hidden in historical records. They present an explosion and security risk, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries start removing these relics, researchers plan to safeguard the marine communities that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these steel remains remaining from munitions with certain more secure, various harmless structures, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in Lübeck sets a model for substituting habitats after explosive extraction in different areas – because also the most damaging weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.