Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's coast lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from barges at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless weapons have become matted together over the years. They form a decaying layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

We initially anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he says.

Numerous of ocean life had settled on the weapons, creating a regenerated marine community more populous than the seabed around it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we find in areas that are supposed to be hazardous and dangerous, he explains.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of animal life that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were living on every square metre of the munitions, experts documented in their paper on the discovery. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that things that are intended to destroy everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can create alternatives, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation shows that explosives could be similarly positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of arms were dumped off the Germany's coast. Numerous of individuals loaded them in barges; some were deposited in specific areas, others just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have transformed into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively act as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, says Vedenin. Consequently a lot of marine species that are typically uncommon or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are often littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material lie in our oceans.

The locations of these explosives are insufficiently documented, in part because of international boundaries, classified military information and the reality that documents are stored in old files. They create an detonation and safety hazard, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states embark on extracting these remains, experts plan to preserve the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures left from munitions with some less dangerous, some non-dangerous structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting material after weapon clearance in different areas – because also the most damaging armaments can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.