World War II Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the World War II and forgotten about, thousands munitions have become matted together over the years. They form a rusting layer on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists shouting with surprise when the ROV first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had settled amid the weapons, developing a regenerated habitat richer than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was proof to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we discover in places that are expected to be hazardous and dangerous, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed chunk of explosive material. They were residing on steel casings, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists documented in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to eliminate everything are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life returns to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer replacements, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This research demonstrates that explosives could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were discarded off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people loaded them in vessels; a portion were placed in designated sites, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the first time experts have documented how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more crucial for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially act as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. As a result a lot of species that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are usually containing weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The locations of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, in part because of national borders, classified defense data and the situation that records are buried in old files. They create an detonation and safety hazard, as well as risk from the continuous emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states begin removing these artifacts, experts aim to safeguard the habitats that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains left from munitions with certain safer, some safe objects, like possibly artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after weapon clearance in other locations – because even the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for new life.