Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the second world war and left behind, thousands explosives have become matted together over the years. They form a rusting layer on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

Some of us thought to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes among the weapons, forming a renewed ecosystem denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This marine city was testament to the resilience of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we find in locations that are expected to be toxic and risky, he states.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of animal life that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every square metre of the munitions, scientists reported in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that things that are meant to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This study reveals that explosives could be equally positive – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be found in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of people transported them in boats; some were dropped in designated areas, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have studied how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for wildlife as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of marine species that are usually scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Issues

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are typically containing weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material rest in our seas.

The positions of these munitions are poorly recorded, in part because of international boundaries, classified military information and the reality that records are hidden in historical records. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as danger from the continuous release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states embark on removing these remains, researchers hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have established in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these steel remains left from weapons with certain less dangerous, various non-dangerous materials, like perhaps concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck sets a model for substituting structures after weapon clearance in other locations – because also the most harmful explosives can become framework for new life.