World War II Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a decaying layer on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal 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 munitions decayed.

Researchers expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first transmitted footage. This was a great moment, he notes.

Countless of ocean life had settled among the munitions, developing a renewed habitat more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are considered dangerous and risky, he says.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every meter squared of the explosives, experts reported in their paper on the finding. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are intended to eliminate all life are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create replacements, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This study reveals that weapons could be similarly beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the Germany's coast. Numerous of individuals transported them in barges; a portion were deposited in specific locations, the remainder just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have studied how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, says Vedenin. As a result a many of species that are usually rare or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are often strewn with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material rest in our seas.

The locations of these explosives are inadequately mapped, partly because of international boundaries, secret armed forces records and the reality that documents are buried in historical records. They pose an detonation and safety hazard, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states start removing these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the marine communities that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these steel remains remaining from weapons with certain more secure, various non-dangerous structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting material after explosive extraction elsewhere – because also the most destructive explosives can become framework for new life.