World War II Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Weapons

In the brackish sea off the German coast sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the second world war and left behind, thousands munitions have become matted together over the decades. They create a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

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

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

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes among the weapons, forming a renewed ecosystem denser than the seabed around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are considered toxic and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers documented in their paper on the finding. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are designed to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most hazardous locations.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create substitutes, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This research shows that explosives could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be found in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of individuals transported them in barges; some were deposited in designated areas, the remainder just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time scientists have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired energy installations have become reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations practically act as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of organisms that are typically uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Factors

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are often littered with weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The positions of these explosives are poorly recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted defense data and the fact that archives are hidden in historic archives. They present an explosion and security danger, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states start removing these remains, researchers hope to preserve the habitats that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being cleared.

We should substitute these iron structures remaining from weapons with some less dangerous, various harmless objects, like maybe artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck sets a example for substituting material after weapon clearance in other locations – because even the most damaging armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.