World War II Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a rusting blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated.

Some of us expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Numerous of ocean life had settled among the munitions, creating a renewed marine community denser than the seabed nearby.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually surprising how much life we observe in areas that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he states.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one visible fragment of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, detonator compartments and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every square metre of the weapons, scientists documented in their research on the finding. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to kill all life are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide alternatives, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation reveals that weapons could be similarly positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Numerous of people placed them in boats; a portion were dropped in designated areas, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time scientists have documented how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have turned into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of marine species that are otherwise rare or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Wherever military conflict has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually strewn with munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our seas.

The locations of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, partially because of international boundaries, restricted armed forces records and the fact that records are hidden in historical records. They pose an explosion and safety danger, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations embark on clearing these relics, scientists hope to protect the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being extracted.

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

He currently hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for substituting material after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most damaging explosives can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.