World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, numerous explosives have accumulated over the years. They comprise a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says the lead researcher.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had established habitats on the munitions, developing a renewed marine community more populous than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was proof to the resilience of marine life. Truly remarkable how much life we observe in places that are supposed to be hazardous and risky, he states.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one visible fragment of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of creatures that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every square metre of the weapons, researchers wrote in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is ironic that things that are intended to eliminate all life are attracting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most dangerous areas.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create alternatives, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of individuals loaded them in barges; some were deposited in specific areas, the remainder just dumped during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how marine life has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

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

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a many of marine species that are otherwise scarce or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically strewn with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are inadequately mapped, partly because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the fact that documents are stored in historical records. They create an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries begin removing these remains, researchers hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains remaining from munitions with some safer, some harmless objects, like perhaps artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what happens in Lübeck sets a model for replacing structures after weapon clearance elsewhere – because even the most harmful explosives can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.