World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, countless explosives have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a decaying carpet on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Some of us thought to see a barren area, with no life because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes on the munitions, creating a renewed habitat denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was evidence to the persistence of life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we find in areas that are considered toxic and dangerous, he states.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the old munitions. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, researchers documented in their paper on the observation. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are intended to eliminate everything are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide substitutes, replacing some of the lost habitat. This investigation shows that explosives could be equally beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of people loaded them in boats; a portion were deposited in specific sites, others just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have turned into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more crucial for marine life as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively serve as refuges – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically strewn with weapons, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are poorly documented, partly because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the situation that documents are stored in old files. They create an detonation and security risk, as well as risk from the persistent release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries begin clearing these artifacts, experts plan to protect the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these steel remains originating from munitions with certain safer, various harmless structures, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing material after munitions removal elsewhere – because also the most destructive explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.