World War II Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from barges at the end of the World War II and neglected, thousands explosives have become matted together over the years. They form a corroding carpet on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

Researchers anticipated to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recalls his scientists shouting with surprise when the submersible first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes among the weapons, creating a revitalized ecosystem richer than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the resilience of marine life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are expected to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

Over 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers reported in their paper on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are designed to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation reveals that explosives could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were disposed of off the German shoreline. Thousands of people loaded them in barges; some were dropped in specific locations, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more crucial for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations practically function as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of marine species that are otherwise rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are often littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds lie in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partially because of national borders, secret defense data and the reality that archives are buried in old files. They present an detonation and security danger, as well as danger from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and additional nations start extracting these artifacts, scientists plan to preserve the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being removed.

It would be wise to replace these metal carcasses originating from weapons with some safer, some non-dangerous objects, like perhaps concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what occurs in Lübeck creates a model for substituting habitats after weapon clearance elsewhere – because also the most damaging weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.