Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, countless munitions have accumulated over the decades. They form a corroding layer on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us thought they would find a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recalls his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first transmitted footage. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of sea creatures had settled among the munitions, creating a renewed ecosystem denser than the sea floor surrounding it.

This ocean community was proof to the tenacity of life. Indeed remarkable how much life we find in locations that are expected to be toxic and risky, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was there, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every square metre of the weapons, experts reported in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to destroy everything are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most risky locations.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This study shows that explosives could be equally beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of weapons were dumped off the Germany's coast. Countless of workers placed them in boats; a portion were placed in specific locations, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time experts have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have turned into coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively function as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Wherever warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are typically littered with weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are poorly documented, partly because of international boundaries, secret military information and the reality that archives are buried in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the persistent emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states start extracting these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the marine communities that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with some more secure, some safe objects, like perhaps concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He now aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck sets a precedent for replacing material after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most damaging weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.