Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a corroding layer on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

Researchers anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

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

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes on the munitions, creating a renewed ecosystem denser than the sea floor nearby.

This marine city was evidence to the tenacity of life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were residing on metal shells, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the old munitions. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were living on every square metre of the munitions, experts reported in their study on the discovery. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that things that are meant to kill everything are hosting so much life, says 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.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can provide alternatives, restoring some of the lost habitat. This investigation demonstrates that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Numerous of individuals placed them in barges; some were placed in specific sites, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time experts have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially function as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are typically rare or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Considerations

Wherever military conflict has happened in the last century, surrounding seas are typically strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The positions of these explosives are inadequately documented, partly because of national borders, restricted defense data and the fact that archives are hidden in historic archives. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as danger from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries embark on removing these artifacts, researchers hope to safeguard the habitats that have established in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being removed.

We should replace these metal carcasses remaining from munitions with some more secure, various non-dangerous structures, like maybe man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most damaging armaments can become scaffolding for new life.