Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline rests a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the World War II and left behind, numerous explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They form a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

We initially expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a barren area, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first transmitted footage. This was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Thousands of ocean life had established habitats amid the munitions, developing a regenerated habitat denser than the sea floor nearby.

This marine city was testament to the tenacity of life. Indeed surprising how much marine organisms we find in areas that are considered hazardous and harmful, he states.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible fragment of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every square metre of the explosives, scientists documented in their research on the observation. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are meant to eliminate everything are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life returns to the most hazardous places.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, compensating for some of the removed habitat. This study demonstrates that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Countless of workers placed them in vessels; a portion were placed in designated locations, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time scientists have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a lot of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Issues

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the last century, nearby oceans are often strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances rest in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, partly because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the situation that records are stored in old files. They present an detonation and safety danger, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and different states start extracting these artifacts, researchers hope to preserve the ecosystems that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being removed.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses left from munitions with some safer, some safe materials, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because also the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for marine organisms.