World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish sea off the Germany's coast sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, countless munitions have become matted together over the decades. They form a corroding blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recounts his team members reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had settled among the munitions, developing a revitalized habitat more populous than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of life. Indeed astonishing how much life we discover in places that are considered hazardous and harmful, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were living on steel casings, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the old munitions. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every square metre of the explosives, researchers wrote in their research on the finding. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are intended to eliminate everything are hosting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most risky locations.

Artificial Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can offer replacements, restoring some of the removed habitat. This investigation shows that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Numerous of people placed them in vessels; some were deposited in specific locations, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever warfare has taken place in the last century, surrounding seas are typically strewn with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our marine environments.

The locations of these explosives are insufficiently mapped, partially because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the situation that documents are stored in old files. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as danger from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and other countries start extracting these remains, scientists hope to safeguard the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being extracted.

We should substitute these iron structures originating from weapons with certain more secure, some non-dangerous objects, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for substituting material after munitions removal in other locations – because even the most destructive armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.