Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline lies a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless explosives have become matted together over the decades. They form a corroding layer on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

Some of us expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team thought they would find a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. It was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes amid the weapons, forming a renewed habitat richer than the ocean bottom nearby.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are considered toxic and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were living on metal shells, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers wrote in their study on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are intended to eliminate everything are attracting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most risky areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This research shows that weapons could be equally advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of arms were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of people transported them in barges; a portion were placed in designated sites, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have become reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more valuable for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of marine species that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically strewn with explosives, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our seas.

The locations of these explosives are poorly documented, partly because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the fact that records are hidden in old files. They pose an detonation and security risk, as well as threat from the ongoing release of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states begin removing these relics, researchers plan to preserve the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are currently being removed.

Researchers recommend substitute these iron structures originating from munitions with certain less dangerous, some safe objects, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing material after explosive extraction elsewhere – because including the most harmful weaponry can become foundation for marine organisms.