Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish sea off the Germany's coast lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a decaying carpet on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

We initially anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers anticipated finding a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his team members reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. This was a great moment, he says.

Countless of ocean life had made their homes amid the explosives, forming a regenerated habitat more populous than the sea floor nearby.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much life we find in places that are expected to be hazardous and risky, he states.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one visible piece of TNT. They were dwelling on steel casings, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all observed on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every meter squared of the munitions, experts wrote in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that objects that are intended to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can create replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This research reveals that munitions could be comparably positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were dumped off the German shoreline. Countless of workers loaded them in vessels; a portion were dropped in designated areas, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have turned into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially function as refuges – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of marine species that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are often containing explosives, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our marine environments.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partially because of national borders, classified military information and the situation that records are hidden in old files. They pose an detonation and security danger, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries embark on clearing these artifacts, experts aim to safeguard the habitats that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these steel remains left from weapons with some more secure, some non-dangerous materials, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting material after weapon clearance in different areas – because including the most harmful explosives can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.