World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast sits a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from boats at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, thousands weapons have become matted together over the decades. They create a rusting blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

Some of us expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats amid the weapons, developing a regenerated ecosystem more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This ocean community was proof to the resilience of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are expected to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all observed on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were residing on every square metre of the weapons, scientists wrote in their research on the discovery. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are meant to eliminate everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide replacements, compensating for some of the lost habitat. This research demonstrates that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Numerous of people loaded them in vessels; some were placed in specific locations, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time researchers have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have turned into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan 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 explosive disposal locations practically serve as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Factors

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are often strewn with weapons, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partly because of international boundaries, secret defense data and the fact that records are buried in historical records. They pose an explosion and security danger, as well as threat from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and different states embark on extracting these artifacts, scientists hope to protect the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being removed.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains left from weapons with some less dangerous, some non-dangerous structures, like possibly concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck sets a example for replacing material after explosive extraction elsewhere – because including the most destructive armaments can become scaffolding for new life.