World War II Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They form a corroding carpet on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

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

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a remarkable experience, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had settled amid the explosives, developing a renewed ecosystem denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much life we find in places that are expected to be hazardous and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were living on every square metre of the explosives, experts reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that things that are intended to destroy everything are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous locations.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This research shows that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of people transported them in vessels; a portion were deposited in allocated areas, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time researchers have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially function as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the last century, adjacent waters are usually littered with explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our seas.

The sites of these munitions are poorly mapped, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted military information and the situation that archives are stored in historic archives. They create an explosion and security hazard, as well as threat from the persistent release of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states begin clearing these remains, experts aim to protect the marine communities that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being extracted.

We should replace these steel remains left from munitions with certain less dangerous, various harmless objects, like maybe man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing material after explosive extraction in other locations – because even the most harmful explosives can become foundation for new life.