World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline lies a collection of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the second world war and left behind, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They create a decaying carpet on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

Some of us anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had established habitats amid the weapons, developing a renewed ecosystem richer than the seabed surrounding it.

This marine city was evidence to the persistence of life. It is actually remarkable how much life we observe in places that are expected to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, detonator compartments and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers documented in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are designed to destroy all life are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can offer alternatives, replacing some of the removed habitat. This research reveals that munitions could be similarly beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of workers transported them in boats; a portion were deposited in specific sites, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the first time scientists have studied how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, retired energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of marine species that are usually scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the last century, surrounding seas are usually strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our seas.

The sites of these munitions are inadequately documented, in part because of national borders, classified defense data and the situation that documents are buried in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety danger, as well as danger from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations start extracting these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have developed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being cleared.

We should substitute these iron structures originating from munitions with certain less dangerous, various non-dangerous objects, like maybe man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most destructive weaponry can become scaffolding for new life.