Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, numerous explosives have accumulated over the decades. They create a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says the lead researcher.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first transmitted footage. This was a great moment, he notes.

Countless of sea creatures had settled on the explosives, developing a renewed habitat richer than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of life. Indeed surprising how much life we observe in places that are supposed to be toxic and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had gathered on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the old munitions. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every square metre of the weapons, experts wrote in their paper on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are designed to kill everything are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can offer alternatives, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This research demonstrates that weapons could be comparably advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of individuals loaded them in boats; a portion were deposited in designated sites, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have turned into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These places become even more crucial for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of marine species that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often strewn with munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are insufficiently mapped, partly because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the situation that archives are hidden in historic archives. They create an detonation and safety risk, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states begin extracting these relics, experts plan to safeguard the marine communities that have formed around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses remaining from munitions with some more secure, some harmless structures, like perhaps man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck establishes a example for replacing material after weapon clearance elsewhere – because including the most destructive weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.