World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, numerous munitions have become matted together over the years. They create a corroding layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

We initially anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he says.

Numerous of sea creatures had established habitats on the weapons, developing a revitalized habitat denser than the seabed around it.

This marine city was evidence to the persistence of life. Truly remarkable how much life we observe in areas that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible fragment of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of fauna that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every meter squared of the explosives, researchers wrote in their paper on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that things that are meant to eliminate everything are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most risky places.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create substitutes, replacing some of the removed habitat. This study reveals that munitions could be similarly positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be found in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of individuals placed them in vessels; a portion were placed in specific sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time scientists have documented how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially function as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. As a result a lot of organisms that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the recent history, surrounding seas are typically containing munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our seas.

The sites of these explosives are poorly recorded, in part because of national borders, restricted armed forces records and the reality that records are buried in historic archives. They create an detonation and security risk, as well as threat from the continuous emission of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries start removing these artifacts, scientists plan to preserve the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being removed.

It would be wise to replace these metal carcasses originating from weapons with certain more secure, various harmless objects, like possibly artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck sets a example for substituting structures after munitions removal in other locations – because also the most harmful weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.