World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They form a decaying blanket on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

We initially thought to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of ocean life had established habitats on the explosives, creating a renewed marine community denser than the seabed around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Truly surprising how much life we find in locations that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he explains.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on metal shells, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the amount of creatures that was there, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every square metre of the munitions, researchers reported in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to kill everything are drawing so much life, states Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most risky locations.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer replacements, compensating for some of the lost habitat. This investigation demonstrates that munitions could be equally advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of arms were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of people transported them in vessels; a portion were deposited in allocated locations, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance researchers have documented how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of marine species that are typically scarce or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the last century, surrounding seas are usually containing explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material lie in our marine environments.

The positions of these munitions are inadequately documented, partly because of international boundaries, restricted defense data and the fact that archives are stored in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as risk from the persistent leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states embark on clearing these remains, researchers aim to protect the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are presently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses remaining from munitions with some less dangerous, some harmless objects, like possibly man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck sets a precedent for substituting habitats after munitions removal in different areas – because including the most damaging weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.