Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast lies a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. It was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes amid the munitions, forming a revitalized ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This ocean community was proof to the persistence of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are expected to be toxic and risky, he states.

Over 40 sea stars had gathered on to one visible piece of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all observed on the old munitions. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers documented in their study on the discovery. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are designed to kill all life are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most risky areas.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer substitutes, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation reveals that weapons could be equally advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were dumped off the German coast. Thousands of individuals transported them in barges; some were deposited in allocated locations, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations effectively serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are usually uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the last century, adjacent waters are typically strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, partially because of national borders, secret defense data and the reality that archives are buried in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries begin extracting these relics, researchers hope to safeguard the marine communities that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are already being cleared.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from weapons with some less dangerous, various safe structures, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in Lübeck creates a model for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in different areas – because even the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.