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

In the brackish waters off the German coast lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the World War II and neglected, countless munitions have become matted together over the decades. They form a decaying carpet on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Some of us thought to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. It was a great moment, he recalls.

Thousands of marine animals had settled amid the weapons, creating a renewed marine community denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we find in places that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he says.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of animal life that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were living on every meter squared of the explosives, researchers wrote in their research on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are designed to eliminate all life are attracting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most risky areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create alternatives, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation reveals that weapons could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be found in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of individuals transported them in barges; some were deposited in specific areas, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have studied how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more crucial for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially serve as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Anywhere warfare has happened in the last century, surrounding seas are often containing explosives, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our seas.

The sites of these weapons are poorly recorded, in part because of international boundaries, secret military information and the fact that archives are hidden in old files. They pose an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the continuous emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries embark on removing these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures remaining from munitions with some more secure, some non-dangerous materials, like possibly artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing habitats after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most harmful explosives can become framework for new life.