Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast rests a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They form a decaying blanket on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions deteriorated.

Some of us anticipated to see a barren area, with no life because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of sea creatures had made their homes amid the weapons, creating a renewed marine community more populous than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are considered toxic and harmful, he states.

Over 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of creatures that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean 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 less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to eliminate everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most dangerous locations.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can create replacements, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This study demonstrates that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of workers loaded them in barges; some were dropped in designated locations, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have turned into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more crucial for wildlife as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a many of species that are typically rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the last century, adjacent waters are often strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of explosive material remain in our oceans.

The sites of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partially because of national borders, restricted armed forces records and the situation that records are buried in historic archives. They present an detonation and safety risk, as well as risk from the continuous emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states start extracting these remains, scientists aim to protect the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being removed.

We should replace these iron structures left from weapons with certain less dangerous, various safe materials, like possibly man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting habitats after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most harmful weaponry can become foundation for new life.