World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the World War II and left behind, numerous explosives have accumulated over the years. They form a decaying carpet on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

Researchers expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

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

Countless of sea creatures had settled on the weapons, creating a revitalized habitat denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the resilience of life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in places that are considered hazardous and harmful, he says.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were residing on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all observed on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers documented in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to kill everything are hosting so much life, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most risky locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, restoring some of the lost habitat. This study shows that weapons could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of individuals loaded them in vessels; a portion were dropped in designated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time researchers have studied how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically function as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a many of species that are otherwise rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically containing munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently mapped, in part because of national borders, secret defense data and the fact that archives are stored in old files. They pose an explosion and security hazard, as well as threat from the persistent emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries start removing these remains, experts plan to safeguard the habitats that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures left from munitions with certain safer, some harmless objects, like perhaps artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing material after explosive extraction elsewhere – because even the most damaging armaments can become framework for marine organisms.