Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They comprise a decaying carpet on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

We initially thought to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

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

Countless of sea creatures had made their homes on the weapons, creating a regenerated habitat denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This ocean community was evidence to the resilience of life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in places that are considered dangerous and harmful, he says.

More than 40 starfish had clustered on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all observed on the historic weapons. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand organisms 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 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are intended to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create substitutes, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This study reveals that weapons could be comparably advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of arms were dumped off the German coast. Numerous of workers loaded them in barges; a portion were deposited in designated sites, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time scientists have recorded how marine life has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have become coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically function as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of organisms that are typically rare or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are often strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds lie in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are poorly documented, partially because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the fact that documents are stored in historical records. They create an detonation and safety hazard, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states embark on extracting these artifacts, scientists plan to safeguard the ecosystems that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses originating from weapons with certain less dangerous, some safe materials, like possibly concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a example for replacing material after munitions removal in different areas – because including the most damaging explosives can become framework for new life.