Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands munitions have accumulated over the years. They comprise a rusting layer on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. It was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Numerous of ocean life had settled amid the munitions, creating a renewed ecosystem more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much life we find in areas that are supposed to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible chunk of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every square metre of the explosives, experts documented in their study on the observation. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to eliminate everything are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature evolves after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most risky locations.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can offer alternatives, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that explosives could be equally beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were discarded off the Germany's coast. Thousands of individuals placed them in barges; some were deposited in designated sites, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time experts have studied how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have turned into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Therefore a lot of organisms that are otherwise scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are typically strewn with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, classified armed forces records and the situation that documents are hidden in old files. They pose an explosion and security danger, as well as risk from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries embark on extracting these relics, experts hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being removed.

We should replace these iron structures remaining from munitions with some safer, various safe structures, like maybe man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for substituting structures after munitions removal in different areas – because even the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.