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

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, numerous munitions have become matted together over the decades. They form a corroding layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says the lead researcher.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Numerous of ocean life had settled amid the weapons, forming a revitalized habitat more populous than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the resilience of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in places that are supposed to be dangerous and dangerous, he states.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were living on every square metre of the weapons, researchers documented in their study on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to eliminate all life are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world evolves after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most hazardous locations.

Artificial Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer substitutes, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This study shows that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of munitions were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of people transported them in vessels; a portion were dropped in allocated locations, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have become reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more crucial for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, says Vedenin. Consequently a lot of marine species that are usually uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Issues

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are often containing weapons, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The locations of these explosives are poorly recorded, partially because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the fact that archives are stored in old files. They pose an detonation and safety hazard, as well as danger from the continuous emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations start removing these relics, experts hope to protect the habitats that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are presently being extracted.

We should substitute these iron structures originating from weapons with some more secure, various non-dangerous objects, like possibly artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing habitats after munitions removal in other locations – because including the most harmful explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.