World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, countless weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a corroding blanket on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Researchers anticipated to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the submersible first transmitted footage. That moment was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had made their homes among the munitions, forming a renewed marine community richer than the sea floor around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Indeed surprising how much life we discover in areas that are supposed to be hazardous and dangerous, he states.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all observed on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, researchers wrote in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that objects that are intended to eliminate everything are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This study demonstrates that explosives could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Numerous of individuals loaded them in barges; a portion were deposited in allocated areas, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the first time experts have recorded how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, says Vedenin. As a result a lot of species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Issues

Wherever military conflict has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often containing explosives, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our oceans.

The positions of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partly because of international boundaries, restricted armed forces records and the fact that documents are hidden in historic archives. They pose an explosion and security hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states start extracting these remains, experts plan to protect the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are presently being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with certain safer, some non-dangerous materials, like possibly man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a example for replacing structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because even the most destructive armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.