World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the second world war and left behind, numerous munitions have accumulated over the decades. They form a decaying carpet on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

We initially thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Countless of marine animals had established habitats on the explosives, creating a revitalized marine community more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every square metre of the weapons, researchers wrote in their study on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are meant to destroy everything are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most risky places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer alternatives, compensating for some of the destroyed habitat. This research demonstrates that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were discarded off the German coast. Thousands of individuals placed them in boats; some were dropped in designated sites, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time scientists have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively serve as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of species that are otherwise rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the last century, nearby oceans are usually containing explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these munitions are poorly mapped, partly because of international boundaries, restricted defense data and the reality that records are buried in old files. They pose an detonation and safety danger, as well as danger from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states start clearing these relics, scientists plan to preserve the marine communities that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being removed.

We should substitute these steel remains left from weapons with certain more secure, some non-dangerous materials, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in Lübeck sets a precedent for replacing habitats after explosive extraction in different areas – because also the most destructive explosives can become scaffolding for new life.