World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, numerous weapons have become matted together over the years. They form a decaying carpet on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had established habitats among the weapons, developing a revitalized marine community denser than the sea floor around it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of life. Indeed surprising how much marine organisms we discover in places that are supposed to be dangerous and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, researchers documented in their research on the finding. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that things that are designed to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most risky places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This research demonstrates that munitions could be equally beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of workers transported them in boats; some were deposited in designated locations, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. Consequently a lot of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often containing weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our oceans.

The sites of these weapons are inadequately mapped, in part because of national borders, restricted armed forces records and the situation that records are hidden in old files. They pose an explosion and security hazard, as well as danger from the persistent release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries start clearing these relics, researchers hope to preserve the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with certain more secure, some harmless materials, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting material after weapon clearance in different areas – because even the most harmful weaponry can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.