Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, thousands explosives have accumulated over the decades. They create a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the weapons deteriorated.

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had established habitats among the explosives, forming a revitalized habitat more populous than the seabed around it.

This ocean community was proof to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much life we discover in places that are considered toxic and risky, he says.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one visible piece of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every square metre of the explosives, scientists wrote in their research on the finding. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are intended 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 some way, life finds its way to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can create alternatives, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This study shows that explosives could be equally beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Numerous of individuals loaded them in vessels; a portion were deposited in allocated areas, the remainder just dumped during transport. This is the first time researchers have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more valuable for organisms as the oceans are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are otherwise rare or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Wherever warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are often containing explosives, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our seas.

The sites of these explosives are inadequately recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted military information and the reality that archives are stored in old files. They present an detonation and security risk, as well as risk from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations embark on removing these relics, scientists aim to preserve the ecosystems that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures remaining from weapons with certain more secure, some harmless objects, like possibly concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for substituting material after munitions removal elsewhere – because even the most damaging weaponry can become scaffolding for new life.