Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast lies a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless weapons have become matted together over the decades. They create a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first sent the images back. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had established habitats amid the explosives, forming a renewed ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we find in places that are considered hazardous and risky, he states.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the old munitions. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every meter squared of the munitions, scientists reported in their research on the discovery. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are intended to destroy everything are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most hazardous places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can offer alternatives, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This research demonstrates that explosives could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of workers loaded them in vessels; a portion were dropped in designated sites, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have become coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of species that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has happened in the last century, nearby oceans are usually strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds lie in our seas.

The positions of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, classified armed forces records and the reality that documents are stored in historic archives. They present an detonation and safety risk, as well as threat from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations start clearing these artifacts, experts plan to preserve the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are currently being extracted.

We should replace these steel remains originating from munitions with some more secure, various safe structures, like possibly man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting material after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most destructive explosives can become scaffolding for marine organisms.