World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands explosives have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a rusting carpet on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions deteriorated.

Some of us thought to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers anticipated finding a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had settled amid the weapons, developing a revitalized marine community denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we find in places that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every square metre of the munitions, researchers wrote in their paper on the observation. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are intended to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world evolves after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can offer replacements, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This investigation shows that explosives could be equally beneficial – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the German coast. Thousands of people transported them in boats; a portion were deposited in designated locations, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These places become even more crucial for organisms as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are otherwise scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the last century, nearby oceans are often strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our seas.

The positions of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, restricted defense data and the fact that records are hidden in historical records. They present an detonation and security danger, as well as danger from the ongoing emission of hazardous substances.

As Germany and other countries start clearing these artifacts, scientists plan to protect the ecosystems that have developed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being removed.

We should replace these iron structures originating from munitions with certain more secure, some harmless objects, like possibly concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now aspires that what happens in Lübeck creates a example for replacing habitats after munitions removal elsewhere – because even the most harmful explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.