Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands weapons have accumulated over the years. They form a corroding layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons deteriorated.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recalls his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Thousands of sea creatures had settled on the weapons, forming a revitalized ecosystem more populous than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the persistence of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we find in locations that are supposed to be hazardous and risky, he says.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the old munitions. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the amount of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every square metre of the weapons, researchers documented in their research on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are meant to destroy everything are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most risky locations.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can provide substitutes, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This investigation shows that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were discarded off the Germany's coast. Countless of individuals transported them in barges; a portion were deposited in specific areas, the remainder just dumped during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have become coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are often littered with weapons, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds lie in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are poorly mapped, partially because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the situation that documents are buried in historical records. They create an detonation and security danger, as well as risk from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries start removing these remains, experts plan to protect the marine communities that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are presently being removed.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains left from munitions with some less dangerous, various non-dangerous objects, like possibly man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He now wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a model for substituting material after weapon clearance in different areas – because including the most harmful weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.