Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline sits a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and neglected, numerous munitions have become matted together over the decades. They create a rusting layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recalls his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. This was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes among the explosives, creating a renewed habitat denser than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we find in locations that are considered dangerous and harmful, he states.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was present, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are meant to kill everything are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous locations.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create replacements, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This study demonstrates that munitions could be similarly beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Thousands of workers loaded them in boats; some were placed in designated locations, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have become coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife 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 organisms as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations effectively serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of organisms that are otherwise rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are often littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our marine environments.

The sites of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, in part because of national borders, restricted defense data and the situation that documents are hidden in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries embark on extracting these remains, researchers aim to protect the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being removed.

We should substitute these steel remains left from munitions with some safer, various non-dangerous materials, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a example for replacing structures after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most damaging armaments can become framework for new life.