Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German coast lies a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the second world war and left behind, numerous weapons have accumulated over the years. They create a rusting layer on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had settled on the munitions, creating a regenerated marine community more populous than the sea floor around it.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in places that are expected to be hazardous and risky, he says.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the explosives, experts documented in their study on the finding. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to kill all life are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most risky areas.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation shows that munitions could be comparably positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of workers transported them in vessels; some were placed in specific sites, others just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. Consequently a lot of marine species that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Wherever armed conflict has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are often littered with weapons, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds lie in our marine environments.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the fact that records are buried in historic archives. They create an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the persistent leakage of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states begin clearing these artifacts, experts hope to safeguard the marine communities that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these steel remains originating from weapons with certain safer, various non-dangerous objects, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting structures after munitions removal elsewhere – because even the most destructive explosives can become framework for new life.