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

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, numerous explosives have become matted together over the decades. They create a decaying layer on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. That moment was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Thousands of ocean life had settled on the weapons, developing a regenerated marine community denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This marine city was testament to the resilience of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are expected to be hazardous and dangerous, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed chunk of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of animal life that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every square metre of the munitions, researchers reported in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that things that are designed to destroy everything are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer substitutes, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that explosives could be similarly beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's coast. Numerous of workers transported them in barges; a portion were placed in allocated sites, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. As a result a many of species that are otherwise rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances rest in our marine environments.

The positions of these weapons are poorly recorded, in part because of sovereign limits, secret armed forces records and the situation that records are stored in old files. They pose an detonation and security danger, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these relics, experts aim to safeguard the marine communities that have established in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are currently being extracted.

We should substitute these steel remains remaining from munitions with certain less dangerous, some safe materials, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now aspires that what happens in Lübeck sets a model for substituting material after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most destructive weaponry can become scaffolding for new life.