World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off barges at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, thousands weapons have accumulated over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, says the lead researcher.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of sea creatures had made their homes amid the weapons, developing a regenerated marine community richer than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was evidence to the resilience of life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in places that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one visible piece of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was present, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, scientists wrote in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are meant to kill all life are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most risky locations.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation shows that weapons could be equally beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of arms were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of workers loaded them in vessels; some were dropped in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance experts have studied how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially serve as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of marine species that are typically rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Wherever military conflict has happened in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are often containing munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our oceans.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently mapped, in part because of international boundaries, secret armed forces records and the situation that documents are hidden in historic archives. They pose an detonation and safety risk, as well as risk from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations embark on clearing these artifacts, researchers aim to protect the habitats that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being removed.

We should replace these steel remains originating from munitions with certain less dangerous, various harmless materials, like perhaps artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in Lübeck creates a example for replacing material after munitions removal elsewhere – because also the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for new life.