Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's coast sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the second world war and neglected, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They comprise a decaying blanket on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

We initially thought to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of ocean life had settled among the weapons, creating a renewed ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had gathered on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers reported in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to eliminate everything are attracting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This study reveals that munitions could be equally beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Countless of people transported them in barges; some were deposited in designated areas, others just dumped en route. This is the first time scientists have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. Therefore a many of organisms that are otherwise scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Issues

Wherever warfare has happened in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are often strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our oceans.

The sites of these explosives are inadequately mapped, in part because of sovereign limits, restricted armed forces records and the fact that documents are stored in historic archives. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as risk from the continuous release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states start clearing these remains, researchers aim to safeguard the ecosystems that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being removed.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with some safer, some non-dangerous structures, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now aspires that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting habitats after munitions removal in other locations – because including the most destructive armaments can become framework for marine organisms.