Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, numerous munitions have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes among the munitions, developing a revitalized marine community denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was evidence to the persistence of life. Truly astonishing how much life we discover in places that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he states.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists wrote in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that items that are intended to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This research shows that explosives could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of individuals placed them in vessels; some were placed in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more valuable for organisms as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a lot of marine species that are typically scarce or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Issues

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically strewn with explosives, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partially because of national borders, secret military information and the situation that archives are stored in historical records. They present an detonation and safety hazard, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations start removing these relics, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are presently being extracted.

We should replace these iron structures remaining from weapons with certain safer, various non-dangerous objects, like perhaps man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most damaging explosives can become foundation for new life.