Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, countless explosives have become matted together over the decades. They create a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers expected to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first sent the images back. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes on the weapons, developing a regenerated ecosystem richer than the ocean bottom nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he states.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all observed on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, scientists wrote in their paper on the discovery. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are intended to eliminate all life are attracting so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can create alternatives, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This research demonstrates that explosives could be similarly advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of workers loaded them in vessels; some were deposited in allocated areas, others just dumped while traveling. This is the first time researchers have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have turned into coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations essentially act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are usually rare or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Issues

Wherever military conflict has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The locations of these explosives are inadequately recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, classified armed forces records and the situation that records are buried in historical records. They present an detonation and security hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states begin extracting these relics, researchers plan to protect the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being extracted.

We should replace these iron structures left from weapons with certain less dangerous, various harmless objects, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for replacing material after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most destructive armaments can become framework for marine organisms.