World War II Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, says the lead researcher.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. This was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Thousands of sea creatures had established habitats among the explosives, developing a renewed marine community denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This ocean community was testament to the resilience of life. Truly surprising how much life we observe in places that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on metal shells, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every square metre of the weapons, researchers documented in their research on the finding. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are intended to eliminate everything are attracting so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous locations.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide replacements, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation shows that munitions could be comparably positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be found in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's coast. Countless of individuals loaded them in vessels; some were deposited in designated locations, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time scientists have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have become coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are otherwise scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Factors

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our oceans.

The sites of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, in part because of national borders, secret military information and the situation that archives are stored in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the persistent emission of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states start clearing these relics, scientists plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are currently being removed.

We should substitute these steel remains originating from weapons with some less dangerous, various safe structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for replacing material after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most harmful weaponry can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.