Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands explosives have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a decaying carpet on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

We initially thought to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues reacting with shock when the submersible first sent the images back. This was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats amid the munitions, developing a renewed ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the resilience of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he states.

Over 40 sea stars had gathered on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were living on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists documented in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life returns to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, restoring some of the removed habitat. This research reveals that weapons could be similarly beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of arms were discarded off the German coast. Numerous of people loaded them in vessels; some were deposited in allocated locations, others just dumped en route. This is the first time researchers have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Sunken ships 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 habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more important for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, adjacent waters are typically littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of explosive material lie in our marine environments.

The positions of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partly because of national borders, restricted armed forces records and the reality that archives are buried in historical records. They pose an explosion and security danger, as well as danger from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and additional nations begin removing these remains, researchers hope to safeguard the marine communities that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with certain safer, various harmless structures, like maybe artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after explosive extraction elsewhere – because including the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for marine organisms.