World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast rests a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay 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 sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. That moment was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of ocean life had established habitats on the explosives, creating a revitalized marine community more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This marine city was testament to the tenacity of marine life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we find in locations that are considered hazardous and harmful, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that things that are designed to kill all life are attracting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This study demonstrates that weapons could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of workers loaded them in barges; some were dropped in allocated locations, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have turned into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these explosives are poorly documented, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted defense data and the situation that records are stored in old files. They pose an explosion and safety danger, as well as threat from the continuous emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and other countries begin removing these artifacts, scientists plan to safeguard the marine communities that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being removed.

Researchers recommend substitute these iron structures remaining from weapons with certain safer, some harmless materials, like maybe man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most destructive explosives can become framework for new life.