World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the World War II and left behind, thousands munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

We initially expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, says the lead researcher.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the submersible first transmitted footage. That moment was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of ocean life had made their homes among the weapons, developing a renewed habitat denser than the ocean bottom nearby.

This marine city was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are expected to be toxic and risky, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible fragment of TNT. They were living on iron containers, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of creatures that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists documented in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to kill everything are hosting so much life, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most risky places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create substitutes, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that weapons could be equally beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of munitions were dumped off the German coast. Numerous of people placed them in vessels; a portion were placed in allocated areas, others just dumped en route. This is the first time researchers have recorded how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for organisms as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially function as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of species that are typically rare or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are often littered with weapons, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our seas.

The sites of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted armed forces records and the reality that archives are stored in old files. They create an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and different states embark on extracting these relics, scientists aim to safeguard the marine communities that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are presently being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures originating from munitions with some safer, some harmless objects, like possibly concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck creates a model for replacing structures after explosive extraction in other locations – because even the most destructive weaponry can become foundation for marine organisms.