World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Dumped Weapons

In the brackish sea off the German coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a decaying carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

We initially expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us anticipated finding a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. It was a memorable occasion, he says.

Countless of ocean life had settled on the weapons, developing a revitalized habitat more populous than the sea floor nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we find in areas that are supposed to be hazardous and harmful, he states.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of creatures that was there, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every square metre of the munitions, experts wrote in their paper on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that objects that are intended to destroy everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adjusts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide alternatives, replacing some of the lost habitat. This study demonstrates that explosives could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be repeated in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of weapons were discarded off the German coast. Thousands of people transported them in barges; some were dropped in designated areas, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically function as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a many of marine species that are typically rare or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our seas.

The positions of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partially because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the situation that archives are hidden in historic archives. They pose an detonation and security risk, as well as risk from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states embark on extracting these remains, researchers hope to preserve the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being cleared.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from weapons with some safer, various non-dangerous structures, like possibly man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in Lübeck sets a model for replacing material after munitions removal in other locations – because including the most destructive armaments can become foundation for new life.