World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, thousands munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a corroding layer on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

We initially expected to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recalls his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Numerous of marine animals had settled on the weapons, developing a revitalized marine community richer than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Truly astonishing how much life we find in areas that are expected to be hazardous and risky, he says.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible fragment of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were living on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists documented in their study on the discovery. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are intended to kill all life are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can create replacements, restoring some of the removed habitat. This research reveals that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of munitions were discarded off the German coast. Countless of workers transported them in vessels; some were dropped in specific areas, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively serve as refuges – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, states Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of organisms that are typically scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the last century, nearby oceans are usually containing explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our marine environments.

The sites of these munitions are poorly documented, partly because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the reality that documents are buried in historic archives. They pose an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries begin extracting these artifacts, researchers hope to preserve the ecosystems that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being cleared.

We should substitute these iron structures originating from weapons with certain more secure, various harmless objects, like perhaps concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for replacing material after weapon clearance elsewhere – because even the most destructive armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.