Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German coast lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, countless munitions have become matted together over the years. They create a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first relayed pictures. This was a great moment, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats on the weapons, forming a regenerated ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we find in places that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he says.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one visible fragment of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every meter squared of the explosives, researchers wrote in their paper on the observation. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 organisms on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to eliminate all life are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most risky areas.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This research reveals that weapons could be comparably positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the German coast. Thousands of individuals transported them in boats; a portion were dropped in designated sites, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the first time experts have documented how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more crucial for organisms as the oceans are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of species that are usually rare or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the recent history, adjacent waters are often strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these explosives are inadequately documented, partly because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the fact that archives are buried in historic archives. They present an detonation and safety hazard, as well as danger from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and other countries embark on clearing these artifacts, experts plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these steel remains originating from munitions with some safer, various non-dangerous structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in Lübeck sets a example for replacing structures after munitions removal in other locations – because also the most harmful weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.