World War II Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the second world war and left behind, numerous munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a corroding carpet on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

Researchers thought to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes among the weapons, developing a revitalized ecosystem denser than the sea floor nearby.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Indeed surprising how much marine organisms we find in locations that are considered hazardous and risky, he says.

Over 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were residing on metal shells, detonator compartments and storage boxes just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every meter squared of the weapons, experts reported in their paper on the finding. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that objects that are intended to kill everything are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. You can see how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create substitutes, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This research demonstrates that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were dumped off the Germany's coast. Thousands of individuals loaded them in boats; a portion were placed in specific areas, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired energy installations have become reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of organisms that are usually rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are often containing weapons, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our oceans.

The locations of these weapons are poorly recorded, in part because of national borders, restricted armed forces records and the reality that documents are stored in historic archives. They pose an detonation and safety risk, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries embark on clearing these remains, researchers hope to protect the habitats that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains remaining from munitions with some more secure, various harmless materials, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting habitats after munitions removal in other locations – because even the most destructive weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.