Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast lies a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the World War II and neglected, numerous weapons have become matted together over the decades. They create a rusting blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists came to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recounts his scientists shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. That moment was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes among the munitions, creating a revitalized marine community richer than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much life we find in areas that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible fragment of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all observed on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were living on every square metre of the explosives, researchers wrote in their paper on the observation. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are meant to kill everything are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most risky areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer replacements, compensating for some of the removed marine environment. This study reveals that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of munitions were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of individuals placed them in barges; a portion were placed in allocated locations, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance experts have documented how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have become reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the seas are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, says Vedenin. Consequently a many of marine species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently documented, in part because of international boundaries, classified armed forces records and the fact that records are buried in old files. They pose an explosion and security hazard, as well as threat from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations start extracting these artifacts, experts aim to preserve the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being cleared.

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

He presently aspires that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a model for substituting structures after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most damaging weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.