Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline lies a collection of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

Some of us expected to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. That moment was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes amid the weapons, forming a regenerated ecosystem denser than the sea floor around it.

This ocean community was testament to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are considered hazardous and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were living on metal shells, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, scientists reported in their research on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that things that are meant to destroy everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This research shows that weapons could be similarly beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of arms were dumped off the German coast. Numerous of people loaded them in vessels; a portion were deposited in allocated locations, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have documented how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively act as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are otherwise rare or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Wherever warfare has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually littered with munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these weapons are inadequately mapped, partially because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the situation that archives are stored in old files. They present an explosion and safety hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states start clearing these remains, researchers hope to protect the ecosystems that have developed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being removed.

We should replace these steel remains originating from munitions with some less dangerous, some safe objects, like maybe man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting structures after munitions removal in other locations – because including the most destructive explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.