World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, numerous munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

We initially expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

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

What they found amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. This was a great moment, he notes.

Numerous of sea creatures had made their homes among the weapons, developing a regenerated ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This ocean community was proof to the persistence of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much life we observe in areas that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, scientists reported in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are designed to kill all life are hosting so much life, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature evolves after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer alternatives, replacing some of the lost habitat. This research demonstrates that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of workers transported them in vessels; a portion were placed in allocated areas, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time experts have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have turned into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more important for marine life as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of organisms that are usually rare or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the recent history, surrounding seas are typically strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these munitions are poorly mapped, partially because of international boundaries, secret military information and the situation that archives are hidden in old files. They pose an explosion and security danger, as well as threat from the continuous emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states start extracting these remains, researchers plan to protect the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are currently being removed.

It would be wise to replace these metal carcasses originating from munitions with some less dangerous, various safe materials, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting habitats after munitions removal in different areas – because even the most damaging weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.