Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German coast sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and neglected, thousands weapons have become matted together over the decades. They form a corroding carpet on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

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

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. This was a great moment, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had established habitats amid the weapons, developing a renewed ecosystem richer than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are considered hazardous and risky, he explains.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every square metre of the weapons, experts reported in their research on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are intended to kill all life are attracting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation shows that munitions could be similarly positive – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Numerous of individuals loaded them in boats; a portion were dropped in allocated sites, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time experts have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more valuable for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically function as refuges – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Therefore a lot of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Wherever military conflict has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances rest in our oceans.

The positions of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, in part because of international boundaries, secret military information and the fact that documents are buried in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety hazard, as well as risk from the continuous emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states embark on clearing these remains, scientists aim to preserve the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being cleared.

We should replace these steel remains left from weapons with some more secure, some non-dangerous objects, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after weapon clearance elsewhere – because including the most destructive explosives can become scaffolding for marine organisms.