Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish sea off the German coast rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, thousands weapons have become matted together over the years. They create a decaying carpet on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his team members reacting with shock when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes amid the weapons, creating a renewed ecosystem more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This ocean community was testament to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we find in locations that are considered hazardous and harmful, he states.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, experts reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are designed to kill everything are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most hazardous locations.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide substitutes, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This research shows that munitions could be equally positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Numerous of people transported them in boats; some were deposited in specific areas, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time researchers have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more crucial for marine life as the seas are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is restricted, says Vedenin. Therefore a lot of marine species that are usually uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are usually littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances rest in our seas.

The sites of these explosives are poorly recorded, in part because of international boundaries, restricted armed forces records and the fact that records are hidden in historic archives. They present an detonation and security hazard, as well as threat from the persistent release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states embark on extracting these relics, researchers aim to preserve the habitats that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being cleared.

We should replace these steel remains left from weapons with certain safer, various safe materials, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for replacing structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because including the most harmful explosives can become foundation for new life.