Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from boats at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, thousands weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a corroding blanket on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Some of us thought to see a barren area, with no life because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recounts his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he says.

Numerous of marine animals had made their homes among the munitions, creating a renewed ecosystem richer than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the resilience of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much life we discover in areas that are expected to be hazardous and risky, he explains.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, researchers wrote in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 organisms on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are designed to eliminate everything are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create alternatives, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that explosives could be similarly beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of munitions were discarded off the Germany's coast. Countless of individuals loaded them in boats; some were dropped in allocated locations, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time scientists have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These places become even more crucial for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of species that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Issues

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are often strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material lie in our seas.

The positions of these explosives are inadequately documented, partly because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the situation that records are hidden in historic archives. They pose an explosion and security danger, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and additional nations embark on clearing these remains, researchers hope to preserve the marine communities that have developed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures remaining from weapons with certain more secure, various safe structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting material after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most harmful weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.