World War II Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline rests a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless weapons have become matted together over the decades. They form a corroding carpet on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

We initially expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had settled among the explosives, creating a revitalized ecosystem more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the persistence of life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we find in areas that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one visible piece of explosive material. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the old munitions. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every meter squared of the explosives, researchers reported in their paper on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are meant to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that explosives could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people transported them in barges; a portion were deposited in designated areas, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time researchers have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more important for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of species that are usually scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Wherever warfare has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically strewn with weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently documented, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted military information and the fact that records are stored in old files. They create an explosion and security danger, as well as danger from the ongoing release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries start clearing these relics, researchers hope to preserve the ecosystems that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses remaining from munitions with some more secure, some safe structures, like perhaps man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for replacing material after weapon clearance in different areas – because even the most harmful armaments can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.