World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German coast lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from barges at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, thousands explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They create a rusting layer on the low-depth, silty 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 visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

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

Countless of ocean life had settled on the explosives, creating a renewed ecosystem denser than the sea floor surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of marine life. Truly remarkable how much life we observe in areas that are supposed to be toxic and harmful, he states.

Over 40 starfish had gathered on to one visible fragment of explosive material. They were residing on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, experts documented in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are designed to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most hazardous places.

Artificial Features as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer substitutes, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This study shows that explosives could be comparably advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Thousands of people loaded them in boats; a portion were placed in designated locations, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have become marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically function as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Wherever armed conflict has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are usually strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are poorly mapped, partially because of national borders, classified defense data and the situation that archives are buried in historical records. They create an detonation and safety danger, as well as danger from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations start extracting these remains, researchers hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with some more secure, various safe materials, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a example for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in different areas – because including the most destructive armaments can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.