Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from boats at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, thousands munitions have accumulated over the decades. They form a rusting layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

Researchers expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a remarkable experience, he says.

Thousands of sea creatures had settled amid the explosives, creating a revitalized habitat denser than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was testament to the resilience of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are expected to be dangerous and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling 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 individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are intended to eliminate everything are hosting 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 some way, marine life returns to the most hazardous places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This research demonstrates that weapons could be comparably positive – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of arms were discarded off the German coast. Numerous of individuals placed them in vessels; some were deposited in allocated locations, the remainder just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time experts have documented how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war 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 oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are otherwise scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Factors

Wherever warfare has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The positions of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partially because of national borders, secret defense data and the fact that records are stored in historical records. They create an explosion and safety hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these relics, experts hope to protect the ecosystems that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures left from weapons with certain safer, some non-dangerous materials, like perhaps man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a model for replacing structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because including the most harmful weaponry can become foundation for marine organisms.