Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and left behind, numerous munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They form a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin remembers his scientists reacting with shock when the ROV first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Thousands of marine animals had settled amid the weapons, creating a renewed marine community more populous than the sea floor around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of life. It is actually astonishing how much life we discover in locations that are expected to be hazardous and risky, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was there, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every square metre of the explosives, researchers reported in their study on the finding. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are designed to kill all life are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This research shows that explosives could be similarly beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of people loaded them in barges; a portion were dropped in allocated areas, others just dumped during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more crucial for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically function as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, says Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of marine species that are typically rare or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the last century, adjacent waters are typically strewn with munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The sites of these explosives are poorly recorded, partially because of international boundaries, secret military information and the fact that records are hidden in historic archives. They present an detonation and security danger, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these artifacts, scientists hope to preserve the ecosystems that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being extracted.

We should substitute these iron structures originating from weapons with certain more secure, various safe structures, like possibly concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a model for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most destructive weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.