Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German coast rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands weapons have accumulated over the years. They comprise a decaying carpet on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first sent the images back. This was a great moment, he notes.

Numerous of sea creatures had settled on the munitions, developing a renewed marine community more populous than the seabed nearby.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the resilience of marine life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we discover in places that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he states.

Over 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible fragment of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was present, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were living on every square metre of the munitions, experts wrote in their study on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is ironic that things that are meant to eliminate all life are attracting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most dangerous locations.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create replacements, restoring some of the removed habitat. This investigation reveals that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of munitions were disposed of off the German coast. Countless of workers placed them in boats; some were deposited in designated locations, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the first time researchers have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are usually scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Factors

Wherever warfare has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are typically containing munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partially because of sovereign limits, secret armed forces records and the fact that archives are stored in historical records. They create an explosion and safety danger, as well as risk from the persistent emission of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries begin clearing these remains, experts hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have formed around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being cleared.

We should replace these iron structures left from munitions with some less dangerous, various harmless structures, like maybe man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a example for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in different areas – because even the most damaging weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.