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

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, thousands explosives have accumulated over the years. They comprise a rusting blanket on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team thought they would find a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. This was a memorable occasion, he says.

Countless of marine animals had established habitats among the explosives, developing a regenerated marine community denser than the ocean bottom nearby.

This ocean community was proof to the persistence of life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he states.

More than 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all observed on the old munitions. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of animal life that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, scientists wrote in their study on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are meant to kill all life are hosting so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can provide substitutes, replacing some of the removed habitat. This research demonstrates that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Countless of individuals placed them in barges; a portion were placed in allocated locations, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the first time experts have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired energy installations have become reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically function as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are usually rare or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually strewn with munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these explosives are insufficiently documented, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted armed forces records and the fact that documents are buried in historical records. They create an explosion and security danger, as well as danger from the ongoing emission of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries embark on clearing these relics, researchers aim to safeguard the marine communities that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these steel remains originating from munitions with certain less dangerous, various safe materials, like maybe man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting material after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most destructive explosives can become framework for new life.