Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish sea off the Germany's coast rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands explosives have accumulated over the years. They create a corroding blanket on the shallow, silty seafloor 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 visitors flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he recalls.

Thousands of ocean life had established habitats among the explosives, forming a revitalized habitat richer than the seabed nearby.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the resilience of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much life we find in areas that are considered toxic and risky, he states.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were living on metal shells, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, researchers documented in their research on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are designed to kill everything are drawing so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how nature evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can create replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation reveals that explosives could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded off the German coast. Numerous of people transported them in vessels; some were dropped in allocated locations, the remainder just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the first time scientists have studied how marine life has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for wildlife as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively act as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. As a result a lot of species that are typically rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Issues

Wherever military conflict has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically containing weapons, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The positions of these weapons are inadequately mapped, in part because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the situation that documents are stored in historical records. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as risk from the persistent release of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations begin extracting these relics, scientists hope to protect the ecosystems that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains originating from munitions with some more secure, some non-dangerous structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in Lübeck sets a model for replacing material after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most damaging armaments can become framework for new life.