World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, numerous munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They form a corroding layer on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he says.

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes on the explosives, creating a revitalized marine community more populous than the sea floor nearby.

This ocean community was testament to the tenacity of life. Indeed remarkable how much life we discover in places that are considered hazardous and harmful, he states.

More than 40 starfish had clustered on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were living on every square metre of the explosives, experts documented in their study on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are meant to kill all life are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This study demonstrates that weapons could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of arms were discarded off the Germany's coast. Countless of people loaded them in vessels; a portion were placed in allocated locations, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have documented how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have transformed into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a many of organisms that are usually uncommon or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the last century, nearby oceans are usually littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The positions of these weapons are insufficiently documented, in part because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the reality that archives are buried in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety hazard, as well as danger from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries begin removing these artifacts, experts aim to safeguard the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being extracted.

We should substitute these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with some more secure, some non-dangerous objects, like maybe artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He now wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for substituting structures after munitions removal in different areas – because including the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for new life.