World War II Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast sits a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands munitions have accumulated over the years. They comprise a decaying carpet on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his scientists shouting with surprise when the ROV first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he says.

Countless of ocean life had settled on the munitions, creating a revitalized marine community more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in places that are supposed to be hazardous and risky, he says.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were living on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every meter squared of the weapons, experts wrote in their research on the finding. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are intended to eliminate all life are hosting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, replacing some of the lost habitat. This study reveals that explosives could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of munitions were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of people loaded them in boats; a portion were deposited in designated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for organisms as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of species that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our seas.

The sites of these weapons are insufficiently mapped, partly because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the reality that archives are stored in old files. They create an explosion and safety hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states embark on clearing these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the marine communities that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains remaining from munitions with certain more secure, various non-dangerous structures, like maybe artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing material after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most damaging weaponry can become foundation for new life.