Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, countless munitions have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a rusting layer on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

We initially expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of sea creatures had established habitats among the weapons, forming a renewed marine community richer than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of life. Indeed astonishing how much life we observe in locations that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were living on every meter squared of the explosives, experts reported in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to eliminate all life are drawing so much life, 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, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can provide substitutes, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This research shows that weapons could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be found in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of individuals loaded them in boats; some were deposited in specific locations, the remainder just dumped during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically serve as refuges – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. As a result a many of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Wherever warfare has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material lie in our seas.

The locations of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, in part because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the fact that archives are stored in historic archives. They create an detonation and safety danger, as well as risk from the continuous emission of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these artifacts, experts plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses originating from weapons with certain safer, some harmless objects, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because even the most harmful explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.