World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline sits a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, numerous munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

We initially thought to see a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists reacting with shock when the ROV first relayed pictures. This was a remarkable experience, he says.

Numerous of marine animals had established habitats amid the weapons, creating a regenerated ecosystem denser than the sea floor nearby.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much life we observe in locations that are supposed to be hazardous and harmful, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were living on metal shells, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of animal life that was present, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every square metre of the weapons, scientists reported in their paper on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that objects that are designed to kill everything are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most risky areas.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer replacements, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This study reveals that weapons could be equally positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's coast. Numerous of people placed them in boats; some were dropped in allocated sites, the remainder just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for marine life as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas effectively serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of organisms that are typically rare or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the last century, surrounding seas are typically littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are inadequately documented, in part because of national borders, classified military information and the situation that records are stored in old files. They present an detonation and safety danger, as well as danger from the continuous release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations embark on removing these relics, researchers plan to preserve the ecosystems that have established in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures remaining from munitions with some safer, some non-dangerous materials, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what happens in Lübeck sets a precedent for substituting structures after munitions removal in other locations – because including the most damaging explosives can become framework for new life.