Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers anticipated to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Thousands of sea creatures had settled amid the weapons, developing a regenerated ecosystem richer than the ocean bottom around it.

This ocean community was testament to the resilience of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we find in places that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he states.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on metal shells, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all observed on the old munitions. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every square metre of the explosives, experts wrote in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 organisms on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to destroy all life are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most hazardous locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create substitutes, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This study reveals that weapons could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were dumped off the German coast. Thousands of people placed them in vessels; a portion were deposited in designated sites, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for organisms as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially function as refuges – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, says Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of species that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has happened in the last century, nearby oceans are often littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these munitions are poorly mapped, partly because of national borders, classified defense data and the reality that archives are stored in historic archives. They present an detonation and security hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and additional nations start extracting these remains, scientists hope to preserve the habitats that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures remaining from munitions with some safer, some harmless structures, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck sets a precedent for replacing structures after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most harmful explosives can become scaffolding for new life.