World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, numerous weapons have accumulated over the years. 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 years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated.

We initially anticipated to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. This was a memorable occasion, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats on the munitions, developing a regenerated ecosystem more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of marine life. Truly surprising how much life we discover in areas that are considered hazardous and harmful, he says.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed chunk of explosive material. They were living on metal shells, detonator compartments and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the weapons, experts documented in their study on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are meant to destroy everything are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This study reveals that explosives could be equally positive – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of people loaded them in vessels; some were deposited in specific locations, others just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively act as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the last century, surrounding seas are typically strewn with explosives, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are inadequately mapped, in part because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the reality that documents are stored in historic archives. They pose an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the persistent release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries start removing these relics, experts hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have established in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being removed.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from munitions with some more secure, various non-dangerous objects, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for substituting structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because also the most destructive explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.