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

In the brackish waters off the Germany's coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, numerous munitions have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says the lead researcher.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin remembers his scientists shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had settled among the explosives, creating a renewed habitat more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we discover in places that are expected to be dangerous and harmful, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of animal life that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every square metre of the munitions, experts reported in their research on the discovery. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are designed to eliminate everything are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous locations.

Artificial Features as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer alternatives, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that weapons could be similarly beneficial – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were discarded off the German coast. Thousands of workers placed them in barges; a portion were deposited in designated areas, the remainder just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have transformed into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of organisms that are usually uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually containing weapons, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently recorded, in part because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the fact that records are buried in old files. They create an explosion and safety hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries start removing these artifacts, experts aim to safeguard the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being removed.

We should replace these iron structures originating from munitions with some less dangerous, various harmless objects, like perhaps concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for replacing material after weapon clearance in different areas – because also the most harmful armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.