Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, countless munitions have become matted together over the years. They create a rusting blanket on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he notes.

Countless of ocean life had settled amid the munitions, developing a revitalized ecosystem denser than the sea floor surrounding it.

This marine city was evidence to the tenacity of life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had gathered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was present, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, researchers wrote in their research on the observation. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to eliminate everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most risky locations.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were discarded off the Germany's coast. Countless of people loaded them in boats; some were dropped in designated locations, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more crucial for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are typically rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the last century, nearby oceans are often littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are poorly recorded, in part because of national borders, secret defense data and the reality that documents are hidden in historic archives. They create an detonation and security risk, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries start extracting these remains, researchers hope to preserve the marine communities that have developed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these metal carcasses originating from munitions with some safer, various harmless structures, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now aspires that what transpires in Lübeck sets a model for replacing habitats after explosive extraction in different areas – because including the most destructive explosives can become framework for marine organisms.