Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's coast lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from boats at the conclusion of the World War II and forgotten about, countless explosives have become matted together over the years. They form a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. This was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes on the explosives, creating a revitalized ecosystem richer than the sea floor nearby.

This marine city was testament to the tenacity of marine life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we find in areas that are expected to be toxic and risky, he explains.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one visible piece of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every square metre of the explosives, experts documented in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that things that are meant to destroy everything are attracting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, compensating for some of the lost habitat. This research demonstrates that explosives could be comparably positive – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of individuals placed them in vessels; a portion were deposited in specific sites, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more crucial for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a many of species that are typically uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the last century, adjacent waters are usually containing munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are poorly documented, in part because of sovereign limits, restricted military information and the fact that archives are buried in historical records. They present an explosion and safety hazard, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and other countries begin clearing these relics, experts plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are currently being extracted.

Researchers recommend substitute these iron structures originating from weapons with some more secure, various non-dangerous objects, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a example for substituting material after weapon clearance in different areas – because also the most destructive weaponry can become foundation for new life.