Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, thousands explosives have become matted together over the years. They comprise a decaying layer on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

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

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. It was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes amid the weapons, forming a regenerated marine community denser than the sea floor surrounding it.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of life. Truly surprising how much life we observe in areas that are supposed to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all observed on the old munitions. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, experts wrote in their study on the discovery. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are designed to eliminate all life are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most hazardous locations.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create replacements, restoring some of the removed habitat. This research shows that weapons could be equally beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were discarded off the German shoreline. Countless of workers placed them in barges; some were placed in allocated locations, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more important for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially function as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of marine species that are usually uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are typically littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our oceans.

The positions of these munitions are inadequately documented, in part because of national borders, classified military information and the situation that documents are buried in historical records. They present an explosion and safety danger, as well as risk from the persistent leakage of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states start extracting these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses originating from weapons with certain safer, various harmless structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck sets a example for replacing material after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most damaging weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.