World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline rests a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They create a rusting blanket on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. It was a great moment, he recalls.

Thousands of marine animals had settled amid the munitions, developing a renewed ecosystem more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are supposed to be dangerous and harmful, he states.

In excess of 40 sea stars had gathered on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, researchers documented in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are designed to destroy everything are drawing so much life, states Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most dangerous areas.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This study demonstrates that explosives could be equally beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Numerous of workers placed them in vessels; a portion were deposited in specific locations, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time experts have recorded how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more important for marine life as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations practically serve as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of marine species that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently documented, in part because of national borders, secret defense data and the reality that archives are buried in old files. They create an explosion and security risk, as well as risk from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries begin clearing these remains, experts hope to preserve the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

We should substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with certain safer, various non-dangerous objects, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for substituting material after explosive extraction elsewhere – because also the most harmful explosives can become scaffolding for marine organisms.