Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

We initially thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes amid the explosives, creating a renewed ecosystem more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Indeed surprising how much marine organisms we find in areas that are considered hazardous and harmful, he states.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, states Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every square metre of the explosives, experts wrote in their research on the observation. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are designed to destroy everything are hosting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can offer substitutes, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This research demonstrates that weapons could be comparably positive – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people loaded them in boats; some were dropped in allocated areas, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time researchers have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have turned into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a lot of species that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, adjacent waters are typically strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our seas.

The locations of these munitions are poorly mapped, in part because of national borders, secret defense data and the situation that archives are buried in old files. They pose an detonation and safety danger, as well as danger from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries start extracting these relics, researchers plan to protect the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures originating from munitions with some less dangerous, various safe materials, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing habitats after weapon clearance elsewhere – because including the most damaging armaments can become foundation for new life.