World War II Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous munitions have accumulated over the years. They create a rusting carpet on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

Some of us thought to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a great moment, he says.

Countless of ocean life had established habitats among the munitions, forming a regenerated ecosystem richer than the sea floor surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we discover in places that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the explosives, experts documented in their study on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are designed to destroy everything are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide replacements, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This study demonstrates that munitions could be equally beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were dumped off the German shoreline. Thousands of people transported them in vessels; some were placed in specific sites, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time scientists have recorded how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more crucial for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of species that are otherwise scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually containing weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our oceans.

The positions of these explosives are poorly recorded, in part because of sovereign limits, restricted military information and the reality that archives are buried in historic archives. They pose an explosion and security risk, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations embark on extracting these artifacts, experts hope to protect the marine communities that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being extracted.

We should replace these iron structures remaining from munitions with some more secure, various harmless objects, like possibly concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what occurs in Lübeck sets a model for substituting material after munitions removal elsewhere – because even the most damaging armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.