Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, thousands explosives have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a rusting blanket on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

We initially expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers anticipated finding a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats among the explosives, creating a regenerated marine community denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the resilience of life. It is actually astonishing how much life we observe in locations that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he explains.

More than 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists documented in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that things that are meant to eliminate everything are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create substitutes, replacing some of the lost habitat. This study shows that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Countless of individuals placed them in vessels; a portion were dropped in specific locations, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to coral off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more important for marine life as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are otherwise scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often containing munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The positions of these munitions are poorly recorded, partially because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the reality that archives are hidden in old files. They pose an explosion and security risk, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and different states start clearing these artifacts, experts hope to preserve the ecosystems that have formed around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures remaining from weapons with some safer, various non-dangerous structures, like possibly artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing structures after explosive extraction in other locations – because including the most damaging armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.