Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish waters off the Germany's coast lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and left behind, numerous explosives have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a decaying blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes amid the munitions, creating a regenerated marine community richer than the sea floor around it.

This marine city was proof to the resilience of marine life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are considered toxic and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every square metre of the weapons, researchers reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that things that are meant to destroy all life are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most hazardous places.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, compensating for some of the removed habitat. This study shows that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were discarded off the German shoreline. Numerous of individuals transported them in barges; a portion were dropped in designated areas, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time experts have recorded how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired energy installations have become coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for organisms as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are usually rare or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Issues

Anywhere warfare has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are often containing munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of explosive material rest in our seas.

The sites of these weapons are insufficiently mapped, partly because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the fact that archives are hidden in historic archives. They create an detonation and security risk, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states embark on extracting these relics, experts hope to preserve the habitats that have established in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are presently being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these steel remains remaining from munitions with certain less dangerous, various safe objects, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing material after munitions removal in other locations – because even the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.