Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German coast sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They create a rusting layer on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

We initially anticipated to see a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the submersible first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he says.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes on the weapons, forming a renewed marine community more populous than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the persistence of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are expected to be toxic and dangerous, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible fragment of TNT. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, experts documented in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are designed to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most risky locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the German shoreline. Thousands of workers loaded them in barges; some were placed in designated areas, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas effectively act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of marine species that are typically rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the last century, surrounding seas are often littered with munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The sites of these explosives are poorly mapped, partially because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the fact that records are buried in old files. They create an explosion and security danger, as well as threat from the continuous release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and additional nations begin extracting these relics, researchers plan to safeguard the marine communities that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are currently being removed.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from munitions with certain safer, various harmless structures, like possibly concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck sets a precedent for replacing structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because also the most destructive explosives can become scaffolding for new life.